Revisiting the Crime Scene: Intermedial Translation, Adaptation, and Novelization of The Killing

Abstract

Arguably, the most internationally successful TV drama to come out of the Nordic countries, Forbrydelsen (The Killing, 2007–2012) simultaneously circulated in subtitled or synchronized Danish and US television serials and as an English-language novelization, disseminated through multiple translations. This chapter interrogates the cross-cultural and intermedial adaptation networks of Forbrydelsen by exploring the ways in which this audio-visual text allows us to reflect on central concerns within adaptation studies about “originality” and “locatability” in a globalized intermedial landscape. Drawing on mobility studies, translation studies, and intermedial theory, it is argued that the localized Danish crime scenes of the original series are better viewed as thoroughly mobilized spaces, always in-translation and always to be revisited and remediated, which makes Forbrydelsen a notable example of globalized and hypermediated contemporary storytelling.