Transformation of the feminine in Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's feeling for snow and Erik Axl Sund's The weakness of Victoria Bergman

The article analyzes the nature of the main female characters and its transformation in modern Scandinavian detective fiction through the example of the novels Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg and The Weakness of Victoria Bergman by Erik Axl Sund. The authors of the article reveal the masculinity traits and the distorted feminine in the main female characters representing urgent national, ethical, and gender contradictions in Scandinavian society, which makes the current study highly relevant. The article shows that the heroines of both novels while investigating terrible crimes express courage, logic, powerful minds, break stereotypes of female behavior, thus acting as the female characters of Scandinavian myths. Such behavior is determined by the heavy traumatic experience of their childhoods. In contrast to the female characters, men in the novels not only fade into the background, but lose their gender role and undertake traditional female functions (become househusbands, wash, cook and run the house). The research methodology included the comparative typological method, the motive analysis, the psychoanalytical method and certain culturological tools. The authors conclude that modern Scandinavian detective fiction deserves a proper research regarding its form, genre, narrative strategies and the whole system of characters, especially the female ones.