DrERIK Tonning (b. 1977)

academic posts
January 2015-
Senior Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen, Norway.
January 2011-December 2014
Research Director, Modernism and Christianity: Literature, History, Archive, Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen, Norway.
September 2010-December 2010
Associate Tutorship, Regent’s Park College, Oxford.
October 2005–September 2010
Research Fellow of the Centre for Christianity and Culture, Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford; 2007-2010, member of the Oxford English Faculty.
1 March 2006–24 July 2009 (includes 4 months’ paternity leave, 2007)
Norwegian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow and member of the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo. (Project: Samuel Beckett and Christianity.)
EDUCATION
October 2001–June 2006 Lincoln College, University of Oxford
Doctor of Philosophy (awarded 10 June 2006)
Supervisor: Prof. Christopher Butler
Examiners: Profs. Ronald Bush (Oxford) and Mary Bryden (Reading)
Thesis:
‘Abstraction in Samuel Beckett’s Drama for Stage and Screen 1962–1985’.
According to the examiners, the thesis demonstrated ‘a scholarly and critical command of its subject well beyond the usual level of a DPhil thesis. Extremely well-informed about Beckett’s published and unpublished writing and about the by now voluminous Beckett commentary, Tonning writes about Beckett’s late methodology with admirable lucidity. He treats the formalist issues raised by Beckett’s “abstract” art extremely well, and his examination of Beckett’s sources is exemplary’.
January 2000–December 2001 University of Oslo, Norway
Candidatus Philologiae (2-year MA degree, 1 year research. 120 ECTS credits).
Thesis: ‘Qualities of Nothing: Comparing King Lear and Endgame’ (40 000 words). Mark: 1.6.[The 1.5-2.0 scale is in the First Class/A range.]
August–December 1999 University of Bergen, Norway
‘Mellomfag’ (additional major) in Philosophy (mark: 1.7). 30 ECTS credits. Specialisation in ‘Philosophy and Literature’.
August 1996–June 1999 University of Bergen, Norway
Candidatus Magisterii (BA, ordinarily 4 years. 240 ECTS credits). Introductory examinations in Philosophy (mark: 1.6) and Phonetics and Linguistics (mark: 1.4). Major in English Language and Literature (marks: ‘Grunnfag’ 1.6 and ‘Mellomfag’ 1.7), minors in Philosophy (with an emphasis on aesthetic theory) (mark: 1.6) and Psychology (mark: 1.9).
Accomplished alongside full-time ‘siviltjeneste’ (the alternative to military conscription in Norway), Aug 97–Aug 98.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
2011-2014. Bergen Research Foundation grant for the project Modernism and Christianity: Literature, History, Archive. NOK 4,6 million (plus matching funding from the University of Bergen).
2006–2009. Postdoctoral funding from the Norwegian Research Council, won in a national competition across the humanities (11 successful applicants). Project: Samuel Beckett and Christianity.
2001–2004 Full scholarship (fees and maintenance) for 34 months of doctoral study at Oxford awarded by the Brynie and Jordan Fund (private foundation administered by the University of Oslo).
1999 and 2000 Lise and Arnfinn Heje’s Stipend, awarded by a private foundation for outstanding academic achievements.
1998 and 1999 Meltzer Stipend, awarded by the University of Bergen for outstanding academic achievements.
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs:
Samuel Beckett’s Abstract Drama: Works for Stage and Screen 1962-1985 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2007).‘The strength of Samuel Beckett’s Abstract Drama is in its nuanced refusal to read Beckett’s plays in exclusively formal terms….Its careful close analyses of the often oxymoronic cadences of individual plays are also consistently strong….There are suggestive engagements with Beckett’s reading and note-taking and an astute use of manuscripts to illuminate readings of the plays…’ Review of English Studies, 61:248 (Feb 2010). Other reviews: Études Irlandaises33:1 (2008); Documenta: tijdschrift voor theatre,26:4(2008); Journal of Beckett Studies, Vol. 19., no. 1 (2010).
Modernism and Christianity(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).‘A welcome contribution to this ongoing conversation on the role played by religion in modernist culture….Tonning’s study succeeds brilliantly in moving beyond conventional frameworks and offers an inspiring and thought-provoking reading….[it] is of great value as it offers an insightful overview of a neglected area. It also opens the door to further research…’ Literature and Theology, Advanced Access, 19 February 2015.
Edited books:
Sightings: Selected Literary Essays (by Keith Brown, edited with an introduction by Erik Tonning). Bern: Peter Lang, 2008.
Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies. Special Issue of the journalSamuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui,22 (2010), eds. Erik Tonning (principal editor, with a single-authored introduction), Matthew Feldman, Matthijs Engelberts and Dirk van Hulle.
Broadcasting in the Modernist Era (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), eds. Matthew Feldman, Henry Mead and Erik Tonning (co-authored introduction).
Modernism, Christianity and Apocalypse (Leiden: Brill, 2015), eds. Erik Tonning (principal editor, with a single-authored introduction), Matthew Feldman and David Addyman.
The Correspondence of Ezra Pound and the Frobenius Institute, 1930-1959 (contracted with Bloomsbury Academic for the Modernist Archives series). Eds. Ronald Bush and Erik Tonning, with Andrea Rinaldi. In preparation. Flexible publication date.
Art in Battle. Exhibition Catalogue, eds. Line Daatland, Gregory Maertz and Erik Tonning. In preparation. Publication date September 2015.
Samuel Beckett and the BBC. Edited volume, based on a symposium in Regent’s Park College, Oxford. Contracted with Palgrave MacMillan, submission deadline 1 December 2015. In preparation.
David Jones: Christian Modernist?, eds. Paul S. Fiddes, Erik Tonning, Anna Johnson and Jamie Callison. Edited volume contracted with Brill Publishers (a collection of papers from a September 2013 conference).
Editoral roles:
Historicizing Modernism. Book series (Bloomsbury Academic), focusing on the transformation of our understanding of a range of modernist authors through recent archival discoveries. Senior editors, Erik Tonning and Matthew Feldman. The series has published 15 titles:
Modernist Archives. Book series currently under development with Bloomsbury Academic (senior editorsErik Tonning and Matthew Feldman), which will publish primary archival sources with annotation and commentary. Three volumes contracted.
Religion Compass: Modern Ideologies and Faith. Wiley-Blackwell online journal.
Ezra Pound’s Radio Propaganda. An edition of Pound’s speeches prepared in collaboration with Prof. Matthew Feldman (Teesside University), Prof. Charles Altieri (University of California, Berkeley), Prof. Mark Byron (University of Sydney), and Prof, Alec Marsh (Muhlenberg College). Supported by a ‘Peder Sather Centre grant’ from UC Berkeley.
Articles:
‘Not I and the Trauma of Birth’,The Journal of Beckett Studies vol. 14, nos. 1 &2 (Fall 2005/Spring 2006), pp. 21-34. [Material later published in Samuel Beckett’s Abstract Drama, chapter 4.]
‘Beckett’s Unholy Dying: From Malone Dies to The Unnamable’. In S. Barfield, M. Feldman, P. Tew (eds.),Beckett and Death(London: Continuum, 2009), pp. 106-127.
‘“Nor by the eye of flesh nor by the other”: Fleshly, Creative and Mystical Vision in Late Beckett’, Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 22 (2010), pp. 223-39.
‘“I am not reading philosophy”: Beckett and Schopenhauer’. Sofia Philosophical Review Vol. V. No. 1 (2011): 19-44. [Reprinted in M. Feldman and K. Mamdani (eds.), Beckett/Philosophy (Sofia: Sofia University Press, 2012), pp. 44-67. Relicensed by ibidem verlag/Columbia University Press, 2015.
‘The Christ disbelieved by Beckett. Christian Iconography in Samuel Beckett’s Work.’ In C. Armstrong, B. Boyce and Ruben Moi (eds.), The Crossings of Art in Ireland (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014), pp. 167-81.
‘Samuel Beckett, modernismen og arkivene’Samuel Beckett, Modernism and the Archive,Norsk litteraturvitenskapelig tidsskrift, 17., no. 1, 2014, pp. 9-23.
 ‘Samuel Beckett, Modernism and Christianity’. In S. E. Gontarski (ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), pp. 353-69. [Repeats material in Modernism and Christianity, chapter 4.]
‘David Jones: Christian Modernism at the BBC’. In M. Feldman, E. Tonning and H. Mead (eds.), Broadcasting in the Modernist Era (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), pp. 113-34.
‘Old Dogmas for a New Crisis: Hell and Incarnation in T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden’. In E. Tonning, M. Feldman and D. Addyman (eds.), Modernism, Christianity and Apocalypse (Brill: Leiden, fortcoming 2014). [Repeats material in Modernism and Christianity, chapter 3.]
‘Triangulating Modernism, Christianity and Fascism: Ezra Pound’s Efforts to Recruit British Christians for Fascism in the 1930s’. Commissioned survey article for Wiley-Blackwell’s Religion Compass: Modern Ideologies and Faith. Submission 1 October 2014.
seminar/Conference organisation
David Jones: Christian Modernist? 10-13 September 2014. International conference, University of Oxford.
Art in Battle, 14-16 August 2014. International Conference, University of Bergen and KODE (Bergen Art Museum).
Unattended Moments: The Medieval Presence in the Modernist Aesthetic, 2-5 April 2014. International conference, University of Otago. Official collaborator.
Modernism and Religion, 3-4 May, 2013. National PhD training seminar, University of Bergen.
Modernism, Christianity and Apocalypse, 18-20 July 2012. International conference, University of Bergen.
Modernism and Christianity, Bergen 2011-2014. Seminar series, University of Bergen.
Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies. 2005-2009. Yearly international symposium, University of Oxford. For details of past and ongoing series, see
Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies postgraduate symposium.Full-day events, 2008 and 2009, University of Oxford.
KEYNOTES/invited talks
‘“The friendship of this world is fornication against Thee”: Re-reading Samuel Beckett on Saint Augustine’. Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies, University of Oxford, 29 April 2014.
‘David Jones’ The Anathemata: the “machinery of transcendence” versus Medieval Sacramentalism’. Unattended Moments, University of Otago, 4 April 2014.
‘“Why can’t you step on the gas”: Ezra Pound’s Efforts to Recruit Christians for Fascism in the 1930s’. Fascist Ideologues, Teesside University, 5 July 2013.
‘Hiatus in MS: Rethinking Modernism via the Genesis of Samuel Beckett’s Watt’. Rethinking Modernism Across the Arts, University of Oslo, 22 May 2012.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Producer for the theatre performance Samuel Beckett in Bergen: Rockaby/Berceuse and Footfalls at Den Nationale Scene The National Theatre, Bergen, 22-24 March 2012.
Co-curator for the exhibition Art in Battle, due to open September 2015 at the Bergen Art Museum/KODE.
teachinG
2015— Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen
Ordinary teaching and supervision duties as Senior Lecturer.
2013— Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen
Ph.D. supervision: Jamie Callison (joint degree with the University of Northampton). Topic: ‘T. S. Eliot, David Jones and the Modernist Reception of Mysticism’
2011— Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen
Ph.D. supervision: Andrea Rinaldi (topic: ‘Ezra Pound’s Religions’) and Jonas Kurlberg (topic: ‘The Moot and Christian Modernism’)
2010-14 Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen
Yearly lecture for 1st year students (2 hours)
Samuel Beckett’s Endgame
2011 (Spring) Dept. of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen
D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love. (Guest seminar, ENG 212.)
2010 (Michaelmas term) Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Temporary tutorial fellowship
Tutorials (8 hours): W. B. Yeats (Final Honour School paper 7g ii)
Tutorials (8 hours): Virginia Woolf (Final Honour School)
2010 (Michaelmas term) Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Tutorials (8 hours): Joseph Conrad (Final Honour School)
2010 (Hilary term) English Faculty, University of Oxford
Marking
W. B. Yeats (Final Honour School paper 7g ii)
2009 (6 July-7 August) Florida Institute of Technology, USA
Summer school (based in Jesus College, Oxford)
Western Civilization: Origins through Medieval Era (36 hour seminar; the course also involved setting and marking an exam and term papers)
Literature, Religion and Science in the Nineteenth Century (5 tutorials)
2009 (Trinity) Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Tutorials (8hours)
Samuel Beckett (Moderations paper 4k)
2009 (Hilary) Christ Church, Oxford
Final Honour School paper 8 essay supervision (6 hours)
‘Absurdist theatre: its usefulness and limitations as a critical concept’
2009 (Hilary) St. Peter’s College, Oxford
Final Honour School paper 8 supervision (6 hours)
‘Absurdist theatre in Britain and America’
2009 (Hilary) Balliol College, Oxford
Final Honour School paper 8 supervision (6 hours)
‘From Tragedy to Black Comedy’
2009 (Hilary) English Faculty, University of Oxford
Marking
W. B. Yeats (Final Honour School paper 7g ii)
2008/9 (Michaelmas, Hilary) Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Tutorials (8 hours + 8 hours)
Shakespeare (Final Honour School paper 2)
2008/9 (Michaelmas, Hilary, Trinity) New College, Oxford
MA thesis supervision (9 hours) on Samuel Beckett. Oxford-Sorbonne exchange programme.
2008 (Trinity) English Faculty, University of Oxford
Lectures (6 hours)
Samuel Beckett: Prose and Drama (Moderations 4k)
Marking
Optional theses, Final Honour Schoolpaper 8b: Drama in English
2008 (Trinity) Washington International Study Council (Oxford)
Tutorials (6 hours)
Twentieth century British and Irish drama: Wilde, Shaw, Synge, O’Casey, Yeats, Eliot, Beckett, Pinter, Osborne, Stoppard
2007 (Michaelmas) St. Edmund Hall, Oxford
Tutorials (8 hours + 8 hours + 8 hours + 4 hours)
Shakespeare (Visiting Students Programme)
2007 (Trinity) English Faculty, University of Oxford
Lectures (2 hours)
Samuel Beckett’s Prose (Moderations 4k)
2007 (Hilary) Brasenose College, Oxford
Final Honour School paper 8 supervision (6 hours)
‘Theatrical space in Beckett, Pinter and Stoppard’
2007 (Hilary) Mansfield College, Oxford
Tutorials (4 hours)
Modern European drama: Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard (Visiting Students Programme)
2007 (Hilary) Washington International Study Council (Oxford)
Tutorials (8 hours)
Twentieth century British and Irish drama: Wilde, Shaw, Synge, O’Casey, Yeats, Eliot, Rattigan, Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard, Osborne, Wesker, Arden
2007 (Hilary) St. Peter’s College, Oxford
Tutorials (8 hours + 4 hours)
Shakespeare (Visiting Students Programme)
2006 (Trinity) Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Tutorials (8 hours)
  • Samuel Beckett (Moderations 4k)
2006 (Trinity) English Faculty, University of Oxford
Lectures (2 hours)
Samuel Beckett’s Prose (Moderations 4k)
2005 (Trinity) English Faculty, University of Oxford
Lectures (2 hours)
Samuel Beckett’s Prose (Moderations 4k)
2005 (Trinity) St. Edmund Hall, Oxford
Seminar (3 hours)
‘Approaching Dramatic Extracts’ (exam preparation, Moderations paper)
2005 (Trinity) St. Hilda’s College, Oxford
Tutorials (8 hours)
Modern European drama: Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard (Visiting Students Programme)
Tutorials (4 hours)
Modern European drama: Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett (Visiting Students Programme)
2004 (Trinity) Mansfield College, Oxford
Tutorials (8 hours)
  • Samuel Beckett (Moderations 4k)

admissions interviewing
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Regent’s Park College, Oxford (English BA course)
teaching and administration: TRAINING courses attended
2008 University of Oxford English Faculty
‘Teaching Paper 1 (Literary Language), section B: Commentary’
2008 The English Association.
‘Moving On: A Level English 2008’
2007 University of Oxford Learning Centre
  • ‘Lecturing Performance’
2007 University of Oxford Learning Centre
  • ‘Seminar Teaching’
2006 University of Oxford Learning Centre
  • ‘Introduction to Academic Practice at Oxford’ (3-day course)
2003 University of Oxford Learning Centre
  • ‘Graduate Teaching Day’ (English Faculty)