Representation of ethnic minorities in the Swedish social detective novel (based on the novels of Kerstin Ekman and Liza Marklund)

Abstract

The paper examines the images of the Sami and Tornedalians in Swedish crime novels. The aim of the work is to identify the features of constructing images of national minorities in the social detective novel. The research material consisted of the novels “Blackwater” (1993) by Kerstin Ekman and “The Polar Circle” (2022) by Liza Marklund. As part of the study, the images of the main characters of the novels were analyzed, and their similarities and differences were highlighted. The scientific originality lies in determining the structure of the image of representatives of national minorities, as well as its evolution based on novels that have not yet been the subject of research in Russian philology. As a result, it was found that the images of minorities in the studied works reflect a deep trauma as a result of the assimilation policy of Sweden in the 19th-20th centuries, which manifests itself in the loss of language, the rupture of cultural continuity, and the crisis of self-identification. National languages are presented as key symbols of lost identity, and fragments of traditional culture play the role of splintered reminders of past integrity. When creating images, the authors resort to stereotyping, but these stereotypes are deconstructed.

Research materials

1. Марклунд Л. Полярный круг. М.: Городец, 2022.
2. Экман Ч. Происшествия у воды. СПб.: ИНАпресс, 1996.

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Funding

This publication was prepared with funding from the Russian Science Foundation, grant No. 24-28-01401 “Poetics of the North in the works of Russian and Scandinavian writers of the 20th-21st centuries”.

Author information

About this article

Publication history

• Received: August 26, 2025.
• Published: September 19, 2025.

Keywords

• скандинавский детектив
• социальный детектив
• романы Ч. Экман и Л. Марклунд
• литература севера
• репрезентация национальных меньшинств
• Scandinavian detective
• social detective
• novels by Kerstin Ekman and Liza Marklund
• literature of the North
• representation of national minorities

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