Cabins in Norwegian Crime Fiction: More Than a Cliché

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Focusing on Monica Kristensen’s Hollendergraven [The Dutchman’s Grave] from 2007 and Jørn Lier Horst’s Booksellers’ Prize-winning Vinterstengt [Closed for Winter] from 2011, this article explores how cabins function, at times, as more than a cliché in recent Norwegian crime fiction. While cabins are employed as a convenient literary device in these two works, more importantly they also serve as a metaphor for the impact of globalization on contemporary Norway. The attitudes of Norwegian characters towards these places illuminate complex issues surrounding mobility and national identity and mirror nationalistic and, at times, xenophobic attitudes.