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Book Chapter10.1057/9781137291639_6

The Body, Hopelessness, and Nostalgia: Representations of Rape and the Welfare State in Swedish Crime Fiction

Katarina Gregersdotter-2013-01-01-Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks
6

TL;DRAbstract

The Swedish model of the welfare state, also known in Sweden as the 'People's Home', has come under criticism in Swedish crime fiction since Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's novels about policeman Martin Beck (1965–1975). The People's Home can be summed up by the notion that 'the state is a benign institution protecting and nurturing the nation' (Nestingen 2008: 11). However, as Andrew Nestingen and Paula Arvas write, Sjowall and Wahloo regarded the welfare state as an 'incrementalist compromise with capital' (2011: 3), which was moving further and further away from issues of class and justice. As they also maintain, the Scandinavian welfare states have 'been embracing neoliberalism and globalization since the 1980s' (8). Recently, many authors of crime fiction, in particular those writing in a Swedish context, have linked the transformation of the welfare state to both globalization and patriarchal structures. What might, then, be termed a global patriarchy has led to a growing sex indust

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The Swedish model of the welfare state, also known in Sweden as the 'People's Home', has come under criticism in Swedish crime fiction since Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's novels about policeman Martin Beck (1965–1975). The People's Home can be summed up by the notion that 'the state is a benign institution protecting and nurturing the nation' (Nestingen 2008: 11). However, as Andrew Nestingen and Paula Arvas write, Sjowall and Wahloo regarded the welfare state as an 'incrementalist compromise with capital' (2011: 3), which was moving further and further away from issues of class and justice. As they also maintain, the Scandinavian welfare states have 'been embracing neoliberalism and globalization since the 1980s' (8). Recently, many authors of crime fiction, in particular those writing in a Swedish context, have linked the transformation of the welfare state to both globalization and patriarchal structures. What might, then, be termed a global patriarchy has led to a growing sex indust

Keywords

CommodificationWelfare stateGlobalizationContext (archaeology)State (computer science)Neoliberalism (international relations)Political scienceSociology

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