Troubling the water

Abstract

“Troubling the Water: Hydro-imaginaries in Nordic Television Drama” discusses a selection of Nordic television series to consider how they employ Anthropocenic imagery to challenge the Nordic governments’ long-established attitude as sustainable and environment-friendly. Despite their different genres and aesthetic qualities these series share their concerns about the availability of clean water usually perceived as everlasting given the Nordic countries’ physical geographical features. The close reading of relevant fragments from various series allows to interrogate such uncritical understanding of water as a “passive” commodity to serve modern societies anthropogenic wants, rather than eco-social needs. The article particularly focuses on the last season of the Danish family drama The Legacy which explicitly engages with water as being central to issues of social justice as much as issues of environmental concern.