Some Criminally Good Scholarship

Infinite Earths, an online journal that unpacks popular culture in a variety of ways, has published a special issue on Nordic Noir and the Scandinavian Invasion, focused on the impact Nordic crime dramas has had on Anglophone culture and what makes Nordic noir tick. There are four articles in the issue:

• ‘Y Gwyll/Hinterland: Twice-told Noir,’ Bronwen Thomas, University of Bournemouth, UK.
• ‘Where Are We Now? The Legacy of Nordic Noir,’ Andy Lawrence, Freelance Writer
• ‘The Happiest Place on Earth? Grim Scandinavinan Cinema,’ Emma Robinson, La Trobe Univesity, Melbourne, Australia
• ‘This is the Tale of a Nordic Soul,’ Miriam V. Owen, University of Aberdeen

My thanks to Brownen Thomas of the Digital Reading Network who pointed the issue out to me.

Second, Taylor & Francis, one of the giant commercial publishers of scholarly work provided freely by scholars in exchange for organizing the free labor of peer reviewing, adding some copyediting and layout, then distributing to the academic libraries that can afford it and who promise not to let it travel beyond the library’s digital walled garden, has given a collection of articles on crime fiction a temporary release. They will return to serve out their life sentence at the end of the year, so read them while you can.*

Routledge Crime Fiction Collection

Articles address craft, genre, gender, historical crime fiction, and world crime fiction. Though not focused on Scandinavia, it’s very interesting stuff. I was particularly blown away by Margie Orford’s essay, “The Grammar of Violence: Writing Crime as Fiction.”

*Sorry if I sound ungrateful. but I get frustrated when all of this valuable work is generally available to so few in order to support T&F’s 35% profit margin.