Good Luck! Representations of Happiness in Nina Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis' Crime Novels Related to Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Despite its realistic approach, Scandinavian crime fiction remarkably often overexposes the fragility of the Scandinavian welfare state and overdramatises disintegrative tendencies on the individual level. In this way, it paradoxically emphasises dysfunctional aspects of some extremely functional societies. Thus, on the one hand, crime novels present a counter-narrative that is an attractive alternative for writers and readers of fiction. On the other hand, they also offer a distorted image of the societies that it displays. Overall, there seems to be some indications that in Scandinavia there is almost a fetishistic search for the pain points of culture, ritually inflicting a trauma upon oneself, an affect that can reveal lack of security of the welfare state. In this paper, I will discuss conceptions of happiness as formulated in three crime novels by Lene Kaaberbøl and Lotte Friis which partially take place in Central and Eastern Europe (The Boy in the Suitcase (2008), Invisible Murder (2010), and Death of a Nightingale (2011)), providing an opportunity to confront different concepts of happiness in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. Our conception of the surrounding world and our understanding of a happy life (happy family, close human relationships, promising career, recognition in society, etc.) depends on the places that determine our existence. Based on the aforementioned crime novels, this paper aims to provide topographically grounded explanations of what it means to be connected to a place in relation to concepts of happiness.