“Far Darker than the IKEA Paradise of Sensible Volvos”: American Perceptions of Sweden Filtered Through Crime Fiction

Abstract

This study looks at references made to Sweden in U.S. newspaper and magazine articles discussing Swedish crime fiction. Books by authors such as Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell have enjoyed a great deal of popularity in the United States in recent years, and institutions such as the Swedsh Institute in Stockholm have expressed the hope that this popularity will result in greater interest in and knowledge about Sweden. The findings of the study, however, suggest that such is not necessarily the case. U.S. media references to the home country of Larsson and Mankell tend to follow stereotypes and focus on the country’s cold climate, or to see Sweden solely as the origin of products and pop-culture phenomena already familiar to Americans, such as IKEA, Volvo and ABBA. The study considers this view of Sweden part of a larger trend in U.S. mass media away from politics and social issues and toward consumer-oriented news.