The Unbearable Light/ness of Nordic Noir: Investigating Too Much Light in "Insomnia" (1997) and "Midnight Sun" (2016)

Abstract

Crime fiction is the literary, cinematic, and televisual genre of "light" and "darkness". Detectives such as Poe's Dupin, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled private eyes, have in the 19th and 20th centuries employed detailed observation, their sharp analytical minds, integrity, and bravery to cast a light of reason and justice into the dark shadows of Western, urbanising societies.

This talk will focus on the fairly recent crime-fiction sub-genre of Nordic noir – crime fiction from the Nordic countries. In particular, the talk will discuss film and televisual serials in the genre, some of which have been distributed and adapted far beyond the Nordic region over the past two decades.

Nordic noir on film and television is especially interesting for the overall theme as script writers and directors employ the electronic, visual medium itself, its use of actual light and darkness, to tell stories. Taking its cue from the medium itself, the talk will explore what Nordic noir is as a genre, through a discussion of two very different cases that both thematically and aesthetically represent detectives working in the far north of the Nordic region under the strain of too much light, under the midnight sun. Through my investigation, I shall touch upon themes in Nordic noir such as the Nordic setttings, the flawed detective (Insomnia, 1997) and the colonial treatment of the indigenous Sámi (Midnight Sun, 2016).

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