Tradition and Subversion in <i>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i>

Authors

  • Sigrid M. King Carlow University

Keywords:

Stieg Larsson, Swedish crime fiction, Dragon Tattoo, Genre, British Golden Age, country house mystery, locked-room mystery, puzzle mystery

Abstract

Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo both pays homage to and subverts the crime fiction tradition. Larsson’s strategy enables him to expand his work’s focus beyond “whodunit” to the social justice issue of abuse of public trust by those in power. Larsson’s tactic of subversion is particularly pronounced in his depiction of the corrupt Vanger family, use of graphic violence, and rejection of the Golden Age detective character. These elements are examined in juxtaposition to the country house, locked-room, and puzzle/secret code mystery traditions. Despite the elements that pay homage to traditional crime fiction, Larsson’s novel clearly questions the certainties and assumptions embodied in mysteries of the Golden Age.

Author Biography

Sigrid M. King, Carlow University

Sigrid King is a Professor of English at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she teaches crime fiction, Shakespeare, global women writers, and British literature.

References

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Published

2018-04-08