Example English dissertation topic 15:

Facets of evil in highly controlled societies with reputations for low crime rates: An exploration of Japanese and Scandinavian crime fiction

The societies of Japan and countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark are renowned for being highly controlled. Yet, the recent of wave of (internationally successful) crime fiction from these countries reflects differing views domestically about the reality of their landscape. In both regional representations of the genre, the authors present the lives of ordinary citizens spiralling out of control in an evil that is the anathema of their highly regulated society. This dissertation considers authors such as Kirino, Miyabe, Higashino, Murakami, Lackberg, Nesser, Larsson, Nesbo, Kallentoft and Mankell.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Alm, C.O. and Stenport, A.W. (2009) ‘Corporations, crime, and gender construction in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Exploring twenty-first century neoliberalism in Swedish culture’, Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 81(2), pp. 157-178.
• Kawana, S. (2008) Murder most modern: Detective fiction and Japanese culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Publishing.
• Saarinen, R. (2003) ‘The surplus of evil in welfare society: Contemporary Scandinavian crime fiction’, A Journal of Theology Dialogue, Vol. 42(2), pp. 131-135.