Science in the Crime Genre

What function does science have in fiction? And how are fiction and science mutually influential? The aim of the project is to study the integration, interaction, and depiction of science in contemporary crime fiction (literature, film, TV).

Since what is expressed in fiction is now taken more and more seriously, my aim is to increase the understanding of the relationship between fiction and science. In order to accomplish this, I will study five aspects of how science and fiction interact: how science is associated with truth, how non-science is depicted as science, how the scientific community use fiction, how fiction and science are mutually influential, and how scientists are portrayed in fiction (gender perspective). In addition to crime fiction (Nordic, West European, North American), articles from science journals will be principal to the study. As the crime genre has taken over the position as the most important fiction genre for presenting and generating visionary ideas about science, it is the most relevant object of this study. Crime fiction has managed what science fiction never did: to become a popular fiction genre consumed by both men and women from all social classes. This, in turn, makes the impact of what it depicts particularly significant. The project will increase the knowledge of how public images of science are created and spread today, and this will further contribute to the understanding of our contemporary society.