Erik Tonning

Erik Tonning is Professor of British Literature and Culture at the University of Bergen's Department of Foreign Languages, a position held since 2015. He previously served as Research Director for the 'Modernism and Christianity' project (2011-2014) funded by the Bergen Research Foundation/Trond Mohn Foundation. His academic journey includes an undergraduate degree from the University of Bergen (1999), an MA from the University of Oslo (2001), and a DPhil from the University of Oxford (2006).

Research Focus: Tonning specializes in intersections of modernism and religion, with emphasis on British literary figures including Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Virginia Woolf. His work examines theological dimensions of secularization, apocalyptic themes, and liturgical influences in 20th-century literature. Additional research spans fascism-religion dynamics, tragedy theory, and intellectual histories of Christian renewal movements.

Publication Trends: Recent works (2023-2024) demonstrate concentrated focus on modernist archives, religious conflict in literary works, and Norwegian medieval reinterpretations. Key themes include Pound-Eliot theological debates, liturgical reforms in British modernism, and Christian law in historical fiction.

Academic Leadership: As Series Editor for Bloomsbury Academic's Historicizing Modernism and Modernist Archives book series, Tonning shapes scholarly discourse in modernist studies. He actively supervises PhD candidates in modernist literature and religion.

Affiliation: Member of the Research Group Literature & Religion at UiB. Former affiliations include Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture (2005-2010) and Tutorial Fellowship at Regent's Park College, Oxford (2010).