"Stolliga fruntimmer, den ena tokigare än den andra" : om bilden av kristendomen i svenska kriminalromaner

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to investigate discourses related to Christianity in Swedish crime fiction. In doing this the top-selling books each year between 2004 and 2021 are examined. Furthermore, the purpose is to explore whether the identified discourses can be related to attitudes towards Christianity in Swedish society. The investigation is done using Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for Critical Discourse Analysis. The result shows that the top-selling Swedish crime novels, written so far in the 21st century, mostly have a prejudiced attitude towards Christianity and are characterized by a general discourse of suspicion concerning this worldview. This is to some extent connected to conventions of the genre and the fact that there is a lack of nuance in what types of Christian practices that are described. It is however also notable that there is a similar discourse of suspicion towards Christianity in Swedish society.