This dissertation deals with Swedish crime fiction and its successes on the Swedish book market in the early 2000s. The genre’s expansion, marketing and literary content is mapped and analysed in three studies that together paint a thorough picture of this literary phenomena in Swedish book trade. In study no 1 the development of the genre in Sweden in the last 40 years is discussed from a quantitative perspective. With the base in bibliographies of Swedish crime fiction publication trends are analysed in several ways and concerning topics such as genre growth, gender balance, publishing houses, successful authorships, bestsellers and library lending. The results include: a significant genre expansion in the 2000s; a great dominance for the genre on the bestseller charts in the 2000s; and a shift in the author group, from male dominance to even gender balance. In study no 2 the marketing of the genre is examined through an analysis of book covers, titles and other elements in the concrete packaging of just over 150 Swedish crime fiction paperbacks. With book history as an important theoretical influence book covers and other peritextual elements are understood as a significant part of the marketing of the genre, but also – and wider – as of crucial importance for how genres themselves are established, withheld and re-negotiated in the interplay between different actors in the society of literature – publishers, authors, booksellers, readers. In study no 3 a quantitative content analysis of 116 Swedish crime novels published 1998–2015 is used to chart and discuss recurring themes and tropes within the genre. Focus is primarily directed towards what is understood as the most central parts of crime fiction: murderers and their motives; methods used in committing murder; victims of murder; and detectives and other protagonists. The results include: a distinct dominance of female protagonists; a partial realism, where depictions of everyday life in general is realistic while the murder plots are spectacular and sensational; and a dominance of normality, where main characters and innocent victims confirms normality, while killers and unsympathetic victims are depicted as deviants in stark contrast with normality.

Den här uppsatsen ingår i det forskningsfält som undersöker hur konstnärer skildras i fiktion. Specifikt handlar den om författarroller på film, ett område som beforskats i såväl Tyskland som den anglosaxiska världen (kända exempel är Kirsten Netzows Schriftstellerfilme(2005) samt antologin The Writer on Film (2013)) men knappt alls i Sverige. Den kretsar därför kring svensk film, samtidigt som den anknyter till det internationella fältet. Undersökningen baseras på kunskap om genrer i svensk film samt litteratursociologiska perspektiv. I det senare skiljer den sig från det mesta inom området, inte minst i ambitionen att undersöka sociala och professionella sammanhang kring författarroller på film. Efter inledande breda kapitel om historia och ideal kring författarroller följer undersökningens djupanalyser, vilka fokuserar på filmer inom det spann som kallas relationsfilm. Detta begrepp spänner över en stor del av svensk filmhistoria som kännetecknas av fokus på romantik, familje- och vänskapsrelationer och dessas spänningar, problem och utveckling.        Som fallstudier har valts fem relationsfilmer från olika perioder i svensk filmhistoria: Thomas Graals bästa film (1917),En Kärleksnatt vid Öresund (1931),Vi tre debutera (1953),Känd från TV(2001) samt Kärlek Deluxe (2014).Samtliga dessa filmer har författare i bärande roller och skildrar samtidigt i någon mening händelser inom litteratursamhället, inte minst förlagsbranschen.         Materialet undersöks utifrån fem perspektiv, baserade i kunskap från befintlig forskning: Omgivningar; Genrer, modus och troper; Drivkraft och processer; Relationer samtIdeal och sensmoral.  I undersökningen diskuteras relationsfilmens konventioner såväl i relation till myter och traditioner kring författares kärleksliv som i anslutning till professionella relationer. Bland annat diskuteras tendensen att skildra litteratursamhället som en tudelad värld byggd på – till exempel - konkurrens mellan olika genrer, ”högt och lågt”, eller dolt och offentligt.      En av flera centrala slutsatser är att författarfilmer generellt möjliggör en extra dimension av berättande inom berättelsen, ofta i form av en bok som produceras under handlingens gång, och som förstärker och speglar filmhandlingen. I just relationsfilmer blir detta ett ytterligare lager av den identifikation med författarpositionen som åskådaren bjuds in till. Författarna i dessa filmer är, sammantaget, vardagliga gestalter med allmänmänskliga problem och egenskaper, men ges samtidigt – genom myter om yrket, berättandekonventioner kring kreativitet och skildringar av branschrelationer - fler dimensioner som gör dem till attraktiva protagonister i breda filmgenrer. Uppsatsens titel syftar på just denna balans mellan spänning och vardaglighet, som Anders Marklund kallat ”inte alltför främmande”.      Efter analyskapitlen och diskussionen följer också en skiss till en historik - utan minsta anspråk på fullständighet - över författare i svensk film. / This thesis connects to the research field studying how artists are portrayed in fiction. Specifically, it deals with representations of writers and authorship in film, an area explored both in Germany and in the English speaking world (notable examples are Kirsten NetzowsSchriftstellerfilmefrom 2005 and the anthology The Writer on Filmfrom 2013) but hardly at all in Sweden. This thesis evolves around Swedish film, while also connecting to the international field.     The study is based in knowledge of genres in Swedish film in general as well as in literature sociology. In terms of the latter it differs from many contributions to the area, especially in the ambition to look at the social and professional contexts around the figure of the writer in film.      The initial broad chapters on writer history and myths are followed by five film studies, focusing on one film each within the genre known as ”relationship film” (relationsfilm): films focused on the tensions, problems and developments of romantic relationships as well as those of family and friendship. (The concept itself encompasses a large part of Swedish film history).       The five chosen case studies are relationship films from different eras of Swedish film history: Thomas Graals bästa film (1917),En Kärleksnatt vid Öresund (1931),Vi tre debutera (1953),Känd från TV(2001) and Kärlek Deluxe (2014).The films all feature writers as main or central characters while also depicting events within the world of literature, particularly the publishing industry. The analysis departs in five perspectives, based in existing research on the area: Environments (Omgivningar); Genres, modes and tropes(Genrer, modus och troper); Incentives and processes (Drivkraft och processer); Relations (Relationer) and Ideals and message (Ideal och sensmoral).       The analysis discusses the conventions of relationship films in connection to myths surrounding the love lives of writers as well as to professional relationships in the book trade. One example is the tendency to depict the world of literature as a divided, dual world built on competition between things like different genres, ”highbrow and lowbrow” material or public versus hidden aspects of the creative process.      One conclusion is that writer films in general enables an additional dimension of storytelling within the frame narrative, often in the shape of a book produced during the course of the film, which mirrors and strengthens the message and moral of the story. In relationship films in particular, this can serve to create an extra layer to the identification with the writer position into which the spectator is invited. Writers in these movies are, in general, everyday figures with common, relatable problems and characteristics, but at the same time – through myths about the profession and narrative conventions surrounding creativity - given additional dimensions which make them attractive as protagonists in popular film genres.The title of the thesis, which can roughly be translated as ”No total strangers”, is a paraphrase of the concept ”Inte alltför främmande” (”Not too strange”) by the Swedish movie and literature scholar Anders Marklund. It refers to a central feature of relationship films: the balance between making the central characters relatable and common, and at the same time interesting enough to provide some escapism. In this thesis, it refers to this balance in relation to fictional writers (and others in the book trade) in particular.      In addition to the chapters of analysis and the discussion, I have also included a first draft – without any claims of completeness - for a history of writers in Swedish film.