Vol. 34 No. 3 (2025): Nordic Journal of African Studies
General articles

Trapped in Coloniality: (S)extocization of Africa in Season 2 of The Icelandic Crime-Series Trapped

PDF
Jon Kjaran
University of Iceland
Bio
Brynja Halldorsdottir
University of Iceland
Bio
Mohammad Naeimi
University of Iceland
Bio

Published 2025-09-26

Keywords

  • exotic,
  • othering,
  • queer,
  • colonialist myths,
  • media discourse,
  • Iceland,
  • Africa
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2025 Jon Kjaran, Brynja Halldorsdottir, Mohammad Naeimi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Trapped in Coloniality: (S)extocization of Africa in Season 2 of The Icelandic Crime-Series Trapped. (2025). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 34(3), 193–208. https://doi.org/10.53228/x7rgp133

Abstract

This article explores how the popular Icelandic Nordic Noir series, Trapped Season 2, provides a nuanced perspective on the deeply rooted concepts of Icelandic and Nordic exceptionalism and homonationalism in popular culture. It offers a complex discourse on the portrayal of the foreign other through representational practices that exoticize individuals from the Global South. In the series, Iceland is depicted as a cosmopolitan utopia for others (such as Africans), while simultaneously maintaining a narrative of undesirable foreign influence that reinforces an exclusionary view toward the Global South. We employ the notions of Nordic exceptionalism and homonationalism to illustrate the dichotomies present in Season 2 of the series and to examine how popular media can reinforce harmful and exclusionary discourses. 

PDF

References

  1. Ahmed, Sara. 2007. “The Language of Diversity.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30 (2): 235–256.
  2. Ahmed, Yunana. 2020. “Political Discourse Analysis: A Decolonial Approach.” Critical Discourse Studies 18 (1): 139–155.
  3. Ako, Ernest Yaw. 2023. “Same-sex Relationships and Recriminalisation of Homosexuality in Ghana: A Historical Analysis. Sociolinguistic Studies 17(1–3): 45–65.
  4. Ammaturo, Francesca Romana, and Koen Slootmaeckers. 2025. “The Unexpected Politics of ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Maps: (De)constructing Queer Utopias/Dystopias.” European Journal of Politics and Gender 8(1): 3–25.
  5. Amnesty International. 2024. “LGBTI Persons in Africa Face Discrimination Due to Their Identity.” https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/01/africa-barrage-of-discriminatory-laws-stoking-hate-against-lgbti-persons/
  6. Amusan, Lere, Lugman Saka, and Adekeye Muinat. 2019. “Gay Rights and the Politics of Anti-Homosexual Legislation in Africa: Insights from Uganda and Nigeria.” Journal of African Union Studies 8 (2): 45–66.
  7. Atuguba, Raymond. 2019. “Homosexuality in Ghana: Morality, Law, Human Rights.” Journal of Politics and Law 12 (4): 113–126.
  8. Bayrakli, Enes, and Farid Hafez, eds. 2017. European Islamophobia Report 2017. Seta. https://www.setav.org/en/assets/uploads/2018/07/EIR_2017.pdf.
  9. Berghahn, Daniela. 2021. “Performing Exoticism and the Transnational Reception of World Cinema.” Studies in World Cinema 1 (2): 221–238.
  10. Binnie, Jon, Julian Holloway, Steve Millington, and Craig Young. 2006. Cosmopolitan Urbanism. Routledge.
  11. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1983. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by J. G. Richardson, 241–258. Greenwood.
  12. Currier, Ashley. 2018. Politicizing Sex in Contemporary Africa: Homophobia in Malawi. Cambridge University Press.
  13. Currier, Ashley, and Keeley B. Gogul. 2020. “African Antisodomy Laws as Unwanted Colonial Inheritances.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 48 (1–2): 103–121.
  14. Dervin, Fred. 2015. “Discourses of Othering: Education, Linguistics, Sociology.” In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118611463.WBIELSI027.
  15. Dervin, Fred, and Adam Simpson. 2021. Interculturality and the Political within Education. Routledge.
  16. Einarsdóttir, Þorgerður J. 2020. “All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Shrinking and Bending Gender Equality in Rankings and Nation Branding.” NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 28 (2): 140–152.
  17. Ellenberger, Íris. 2017. “Að flytja út mannréttindi: Hinsegin paradísin Ísland í ljósi sögulegra orðræðna um fyrirmyndasamfélög í norðri og hinsegin þjóðernishyggju [Exporting Human Rights: Iceland as a Queer Paradise and Homonationalism].” Hinsegin Sagnfræði. Sögufélagið.
  18. Engy, Amr. 2017. “A Comparative Analysis of European Islamophobia: France, UK, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden.” UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law 16 (1): 29–63.
  19. Epprecht, Marc. 2008. Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS. Ohio University Press.
  20. Fanon, Frantz. 1967. Black Skin, White Masks. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann. London: Pluto Press.
  21. Freire, Paulo. 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th anniversary edition. Continuum.
  22. Grapevine. 20 Years of Grit, 20 Years of The Grapevine. Grapevine, 16/06/2023. https://grapevine.is/mag/2023/06/16/20-years-of-grit-20-years-of-the-grapevine/
  23. Grove, Natalie J., and Anthony B. Zwi. 2006. “Our Health and Theirs: Forced Migration, Othering, and Public Health.” Social Science & Medicine 62 (8): 1931–1942.
  24. Guðmundsdóttir, Lilja S., and Unnur D. Skaptadóttir. 2017. “LGBQ Migrations: Racialization and (Un)belonging in Iceland.” Lambda Nordica (4): 40–65.
  25. Hálfdanarson, Guðmundur. 2000. “Iceland: A Peaceful Secession.” Scandinavian Journal of History 25 (1–2): 87–100.
  26. Hálfdanarson, Guðmundur. 2005. “From Linguistic Patriotism to Cultural Nationalism: Language and Identity in Iceland.” National Languages and Language Policies 14: 55–67.
  27. Han, Benjamin. 2023. “Cultural Specificity, Hybridity, and Transnationality in Squid Game.” Post45, 23/02/2023. https://post45.org/2023/02/cultural-specificity-hybridity-and-transnationality-in-squid-game/
  28. Harris, Keith M. 2012. “The Burden of the Beautiful Beast: Visualizations of the Black Male Body.” In Contemporary Black American Cinema: Race, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, edited by Mia Mask, 40–55. Routledge.
  29. Held, Natalie. 2022. “‘As Queer Refugees, We Are out of Category, We Do Not Belong to One, or the Other’: LGBTIQ+ Refugees’ Experiences in ‘Ambivalent’ Queer Spaces.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 46 (9): 1898–1918.
  30. Hill, Annette, and Susan Turnbull. 2017. “Nordic Noir.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology. https://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-294
  31. hooks, bell. 2004. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. Psychology Press.
  32. hooks, bell. 2015. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Routledge.
  33. Huggan, Graham. 2020. “Re-evaluating the Postcolonial Exotic.” Interventions 22 (7): 808–824.
  34. Igarashi, Hiroki, and Hiro Saito. 2014. Cosmopolitanism as Cultural Capital: Exploring the Intersection of Globalization, Education and Stratification. Cultural Sociology 8(3), 222–239.
  35. ILGA Europe. 2023. Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Intersex People in Europe and Central Asia 2021. ILGA.
  36. Kendall, Gavin, Ian Woodward, and Zlatko Skrbis. 2009. The Sociology of Cosmopolitanism: Globalization, Identity, Culture and Government. Palgrave Macmillan.
  37. Kiernan, Victor Gordon. 1995. Imperialism and Its Contradictions. Routledge.
  38. Kjaran, Jón Ingvar, and Brynja E. Halldórsdóttir. 2022. “Epistemic Violence Toward Immigrant Women in Iceland: Silencing, Smothering, and Linguistic Deficit.” Nordic Journal of Migration Research 12 (3): 346–360.
  39. Kjaran, Jón Ingvar, and Mohammad Naeimi. 2022. Queer Social Movements and Activism in Indonesia and Malaysia. Springer International Publishing.
  40. Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2011. “Negotiating White Icelandic Identity: Multiculturalism and Colonial Identity Formations.” Social Identities 17 (1): 11–25.
  41. Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2014. “Going to Eden: Nordic Exceptionalism and the Image of Blackness in Iceland.” African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal 7 (1): 27–41.
  42. Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2015. “The Exotic North: Gender, Nation Branding and Post-Colonialism in Iceland.” NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 23 (4): 246–260.
  43. Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2019. “‘Europe Is Finished’: Migrants’ Lives in Europe’s Capital at Times of Crisis.” Social Identities 25 (2): 240–253.
  44. Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2020. “An Alternative World: A Perspective from the North on Racism and Migration.” Race & Class, 62 (4): 38–52.
  45. Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2022. “Claims of White Innocence. Multiculturalism and Exceptionalism in the Nordic Countries.” Procesos Históricos 41: 201–216.
  46. Loftsdóttir, Kristín, and Lars Jensen. 2016. Whiteness and Postcolonialism in the Nordic Region: Exceptionalism, Migrant Others and National Identities. Routledge.
  47. Loftsdóttir, Kristín, Katla Kjartansdóttir, and Katrín Anna Lund. 2017. “Trapped in Clichés: Masculinity, Films and Tourism in Iceland.” Gender, Place & Culture 24 (9): 1225–1242.
  48. Mbembe, A. 2001. On the Postcolony. University of California Press.
  49. Maldonado‐Torres, Nelson. 2004. “The Topology of Being and the Geopolitics of Knowledge: Modernity, Empire, Coloniality.” City 8 (1): 29–56.
  50. March, D., and Zimmermann, K. (Executive Producers). (2018). Trapped – Season 2. Dynamic Television.
  51. Martynuska, Małgorzata. 2016. “The Exotic Other: Representations of Latina Tropicalism in U.S. Popular Culture.” Journal of Language and Cultural Education 4 (2): 73–81
  52. Meghani, Shamira A., and Hiba Saeed. 2019. “Postcolonial/Sexuality, or, Sexuality in ‘Other’ Contexts: Introduction.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 55 (3): 293–307.
  53. Mignolo, Walter D. 2021. “Coloniality and Globalization: A Decolonial Take.” In Why Globalization Matters, edited by Barrie Axford, 38–55. Routledge.
  54. Mohamed, Iman. (2024). Colonial Amnesia and the Material Remains of Italian Colonialism in Mogadishu. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 26(7), 918–940.
  55. Ngwena, Charles. 2018. What is Africanness? Contesting Nativism in Race, Culture, and Sexualities. Pretoria University Law Press.
  56. Otu, Kwame Edwin. 2022. Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana. University of California Press.
  57. Pálsson, Gísli. 2013. The Textual Life of Savants: Ethnography, Iceland, and the Linguistic Turn. Routledge.
  58. Passada, M. N. M. 2019. “Discourse Analysis by a Decolonial Perspective.” In Advances in Discourse Analysis, edited by Lavinia Suciu. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81612
  59. Plummer, Ken. 2015. Cosmopolitan Sexualities. Polity Press.
  60. Puar, Jasbir K. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Duke University Press.
  61. Rawlings, Angela, Lara W. Hoffmann, and Randi W. Stebbins. 2020. “Multilingual Writing in Iceland: The Reception of Ós Pressan Nationally and Internationally.” Milli Mála 12: 191–220.
  62. Said, Edward W. 2003. Orientalism. Penguin Classics.
  63. Schaper, Ulrike, Magdalena Beljan, Pascal Eitler, Christopher Ewing, and Benno Gammerl. 2020. “Sexotic: The Interplay between Sexualization and Exoticization.” Sexualities 23 (1–2): 114–126.
  64. Sigþórsson, Börkur, Baltasar Kormákur, Óskar Thór Axelsson, Baldvin Zophoníasson, Katrín Björgvinsdóttir, and Ugla Hauksdóttir, dirs. 2015. Trapped. Season 2, “Trapped (TV Series) Season 2.” RÚV. Accessed August 6, 2025. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3561180/episodes/?season=2
  65. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 171–219. University of Illinois Press.
  66. Statistics Iceland. 2024. “Hagstofan: Íbúar landsins voru 383.726 í byrjun árs 2024.” Hagstofa Íslands, March 2024. https://hagstofa.is/utgafur/frettasafn/mannfjoldi/mannfjoldinn-1-januar-2024/
  67. Tamale, Sylvia. 2011. African Sexualities: A Reader. Cape Town, Dakar, Nairobi, and Oxford. Pambazuka Press.
  68. Waade, Anne Marit, and Kim Toft Hansen. 2017. Locating Nordic Noir: From Beck to The Bridge. Palgrave Macmillan.
  69. Weenink, Don. 2008. “Cosmopolitanism as a Form of Capital: Parents Preparing Their Children for a Globalized World.” Sociology 42 (6): 1089–1106.
  70. Wodak, Ruth. 2015. The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. Sage.