Brott lönar sig. Kriminallitteraturförfattaren som föregångare på den svenska bokmarknaden

Crime literature has developed into one of the most influential contemporary
Swedish cultural exports. The successes of individual authors are used as role
models for how a creative business works, both locally and globally. The crime
genre is used as a model for other literature, for instance when it comes to the
issue of how to reach international audiences. This makes this genre specifically
interesting to investigate, as well as the intense period of change that it
experiences at the moment. The project is an analysis of the field that crime
writers, their books and different marketing events part-take in. The purpose is to
reach a deeper understanding of this genre’s essential role and place today and
how the changed conditions of the genre are linked to a changed reality for its
writers. These are expected to be able to speak for themselves and their products
in an entertaining fashion and to be competent social networkers. How can crime
literature as genre be interpreted in terms of a cultural-economical field that
follows certain norms and patterns, and which is the role of the author in this
context? The project will be performed as ethnographical case studies following
authors through different arenas on the literary field of crime fiction.
Combining our different backgrounds from the disciplines, literary studies and
ethnology, will produce new contexts for interpreting the field and its different
agents. The project is funded by Erik Philip Sörensens stiftelse for the period 2018–2019.