Trapped and Original Noir from Iceland and Norway

Abstract

In this chapter the authors present how the imagery stamp in Norwegian and Icelandic crime dramas not only appears as a reference to real places, the visual portrayals of landscapes in Norway and Iceland are also intertextually indebted to Nordic, mostly romanticist, landscape painting from the nineteenth century. If the assumption of something allegedly ‘Norwegian’ or ‘Icelandic’ may appear outdated in a transnational media environment, the references to distinctive landscapes and landmarks still evoke a sense of place tied very closely to the settings of the dramas. According to the authors, this is evident in their overview of Icelandic and Norwegian crime dramas. In conclusion, they sum up the obvious aspiration from Nordic painting reflected in the spatiality of the dramas.