Kittys kartografi: Platser, artefakter och agens i fyra Kittyböcker

• Published in: Barnboken 2022, Vol.45, p.1
• Main Author: Käck, Elin
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; swe
• Subjects: girlhood; girlhood studies; Grand Tour; literary geography; Nancy Drew; spatial literary theory; tourism; travel
• ISSN: 0347-772X; 2000-4389; 2000-4389
• DOI: 10.14811/clr.v45.673

Within children’s and young adult literature, movement betweendifferent places is often intricately linked to the agency of the characters.The Nancy Drew series is no exception, as it is characterized by a widegeographical area and a high level of mobility for the characters, who alsohave substantial agency. This article examines how places, geographies,cartographies, and spatial movements inform the plot in four Swedishtranslations of Nancy Drew mysteries where travel and place constitutea substantial part of the plot:Mystery of the Winged Lion(1982), andthe 1992 trilogy comprisingSwiss Secrets,Rendezvous in Rome, andGreek Odyssey. Informed by spatial literary theory, the analysis focuseson the aspects of place, artifacts closely linked to a specific place, andagency, respectively. The article shows that place, travel, and artifacts arecentral to the mysteries, which depend on touristic, well-known sites, andon the transformations which occur when these sites become potentiallydangerous. At the core of the mysteries, we encounter iconic, at timeshistoric artifacts that sometimes situate the detective series in a realm ofhistory. At times these artifacts even direct the story, and can thus be seen asto some extent agentic. Finally, the travelogue-informed genre, with its tiesto the historic (predominantly male) Grand Tour, creates new possibilitiesfor character development and reflection in the detective series.