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.

This essay aims to examinate how the dead woman is described in three swedish crime fiction- novels. The novels included in my study is Stieg Larsson ́s Män som hatar kvinnor, Mons Kallentoft ́s Den femte årstiden and Lars Kepler ́s Stalker. The purpose of this study is to examine these questions: how is the dead woman described, how does the woman relate to prevailing norms in a sex-normative context, who is the dead woman based on socio-cultural identity and how can the killer ́s identity be understood in relation to the victim? Inspired by Judith Butler ́s performativity theory I assume a gender constructivist perspective, that gender is a social construction. I am also inspired of Maria Nikolajeva ́s gender role schedule, which shows what characteristics women are most often attributed in literature. I also add my own properties to the schedule. Thus, the result shows that the dead woman fulfills all conventional female standards. The dead woman is, based on the material, either an unwanted woman or an desired woman. The unwanted woman is subjected to sexual violence, something that the desired woman avoids. When the women are dead, they still meet conventional standards even though their bodies are completely destroyed by their perpetrators. The identity of the murderers can be understood from socio-cultural status and their motives. / Denna uppsats undersöker hur den döda kvinnan beskrivs i tre svenska deckare: Stieg Larssons Män som hatar kvinnor, Mons Kallentofts Den femte årstiden och Lars Keplers Stalker. Syftet med uppsatsen är att besvara dessa frågor: hur beskrivs den kvinna som ska dödas och som sedan dör, hur relaterar kvinnorna som ska dödas och sedan dör till rådande kvinnliga normer i en könsnormativ kontext, vem är den döda kvinnan och hur kan mördarens identitet förstås i relation till offret? För att besvara dessa frågor utgår jag från att kön är en social konstruktion och Judith Butlers performativitetsteori. Dessutom används Maria Nikolajevas könsrollsschema för hur kvinnor oftast skildras i litteratur. Resultatet visar att den döda kvinnan går att dela upp i två kategorier; den önskade kvinnan och den oönskade kvinnan. Båda kategorier av kvinnor relaterar till rådande kvinnliga normer. Den oönskade kvinnan har ingen plats i samhället, lever ensam och utsätts för sexuellt våld innan hon mördas. Den önskade kvinnan fyller en funktion i samhället, saknas av någon när hon dör och utsätts inte för sexuellt våld innan hon mördas. Den döda kvinnan uppfyller alla kvinnliga normer utifrån Nikolajevas schema, oavsett vilken kategori hon tillhör. Mördarnas identiteter går att förstå utifrån socioekonomisk status samt val av offer.

(in English): The thesis deals with the topic of social criticism across the genre of detective stories from the 1960s in Sweden. The theoretical part describes how social criticism is constituted in this genre and how it contributes to its specificity. Based on a selected cross-section of five works, it presents not only the various topics which these authors work with, but also the changes in this critique over time. The analyzed works are: The Man on the Balcony (1968) by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, who establish this genre with clear social criticism, the first part of the trilogy Millennium The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008) by Stieg Larsson, who, according to many experts, successfully completes this era, The Stone Cutter (2008) by Camilla Läckberg, The Sandman (2012) by Lars Kepler and Those Who Failed (2015) by the duo Hjorth and Rosenfeldt, that is the works by three contemporary authors of this genre.