Johanna M. Wagner

Norwegian version of this page Department of Languages, Literature and Culture

Press photo

Norwegian version of this page Position

Professor

Contact

+4769608361

johanna.m.wagner@hiof.no

Study place

Halden

Office nr.

A3-057

Academic interests

My research and teaching interests are: American and British literature, modernisms, African American women’s literature, the Gothic, film, representations of women in literature/film/visual culture.

My theoretical interests and expertise are: feminist, gender, and queer theories, theories of mimesis and representation, aesthetics, critical race theory, narratology, literary theory, and theories of affect.

Courses Taught

SFE21417, The Gothic, American Style (Autumn 2026)
SFE11520, American Literature (Spring 2026)
SFBS30321, Communication and Culture Dissemination on Digital Platforms (Spring 2026)
SFE21417, The Gothic, American Style (Autumn 2025)
SFE11520, American Literature (Spring 2025)
SFBS30321, Communication and Culture Dissemination on Digital Platforms (Spring 2025)
SFE11520, American Literature (Spring 2025)
SFE21417, The Gothic, American Style (Autumn 2024)
SFE11520, American Literature (Spring 2024)
SFE11020, British Literature (Autumn 2023)
SFE21317, Film: Adaptation and Intertextuality (Autumn 2022)
SFE21417, The Gothic: American Style (Autumn 2022)
SFE11520, American Literature (Spring 2022)
SFE21417, The Gothic: American Style (Autumn 2021)
SFE11520, American Literature (Spring 2021)
SFE11320, American Culture (Spring 2021)
SFE21417, The Gothic: American Style (Autumn 2020)
SFE11318, English Culture Studies II (Spring 2019)
SFE11218, Critical Analysis (Spring 2019)
SFE21417, The Gothic:American Style (Autumn 2018)
SFE11218, Critical Analysis I (Spring 2018)
SFE10314, English Culture Studies II (Spring 2018)
SFE21417, The Gothic, American Style (Autumn 2017)
SFEB51115, Professional Communication II (Spring 2017)
SFEG11114, English Culture Studies: North America (Spring 2017)
SFB51015, Professional Communication I (Autumn 2016)
SFE10314, English Culture Studies II: American Lit & Cult (Spring 2016)
SFB51115, Professional Communication II (Spring 2016)
SFE11018, English Culture Studies I: British Culture (Autumn 2015)
SFB51015, Professional Communication I (Autumn 2015)
SFE10108, English Culture Studies I: British Literature (Autumn 2014)

Background

PhD, American and British Literature, Modernism (2012)

PhD, American Literature, Modernism (2010)

Positions held

Østfold University College, Norway

Professor of English

Faculty of Economics, Languages, and Social Sciences

2018-Present

Østfold University College, Norway

Associate Professor of English

Faculty of Economics, Languages, and Social Sciences

2014-2018

Maastricht University, The Netherlands

University College of Maastricht

Assistant Professor of English

Faculty of Humanities and Sciences

2011-2014

Research groups

Literature and Narrativity

Wagner, Johanna M. (2025). Spacetime, Tone, and the Sublime: Hope and Despair in Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood. In Wagner, Johanna M.; Duckworth, Melanie & Benjamin, Deanna (Ed.), Narratives of Hope and Despair: Ruin and Regeneration in Literature and Culture. Routledge. ISSN 9781041107583. p. 44–56. doi: 10.4324/9781003656692. Full text in Research Archive
Cole, Kirsti K. & Wagner, Johanna M. (2024). Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Digital Rhetoric, Misinformation, and Trust. In Orban, Franck; Larsen, Elin Strand & Lindahl, Sondre (Ed.), Trust under Threat: Challenges in a Digital Society. Waxmann Verlag. ISSN 9783830948537. p. 101–119. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2022). Empowerment narratives, Marilyn Monroe, and “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”: A survey. Feminist Media Studies. ISSN 1468-0777. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2022.2117837. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2021). Sublimity of the New Mother in Gothic Film: The Babadook and Goodnight Mommy. In Björk, Eva Margareta Lambertsson; Eschenbach, Jutta Cornelia & Wagner, Johanna M. (Ed.), Women and Fairness: Navigating an Unfair World. Waxmann Verlag. ISSN 9783830943655. p. 81–96. doi: 10.31244/9783830993650. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2019). Ta(l)king Women out of the Picture: How Extreme Republican Discourse Framed Women Outside Women's Issues, 2010-2012. In Orban, Franck & Larsen, Elin Strand (Ed.), Discussing Borders, Escaping Traps: Transdisciplinary and Transspatial Approaches. Waxmann Verlag. ISSN 9783830940456. p. 165–179. doi: 10.31244/9783830990451. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
We live in strange times. Old borders are vanishing just before our astonished eyes, while new ones are rapidly emerging. Nearly three decades after the publication of Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man, the zeitgeist that predicted a bright future for mankind to a large extent turned out to be rather more of a dystopia. Crises in and outside Europe multiplied the number of border controls, triggered the construction of walls and fences and widened ideological gaps. The book Discussing Borders, Escaping Traps is a transdisciplinary and transspatial approach to investigating these vanishing, emerging and changing material and immaterial borders. It is the result of a two-year project by AreaS, a research group in area studies located at Østfold University College in Norway, and by partners of AreaS.
Wagner, Johanna M. (2019). “But, it’s happening to you, Eleanor”: The Haunting as a Buildingsroman.”. In Macdonald, Tamar Jeffers & Kamm, Frances A. (Ed.), Gothic Heroines on Screen: Representation, Interpretation and Feminist Inquiry. Routledge. ISSN 9781138711006. p. 83–95. doi: 10.4324/9781315200545. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2019). “Public Places, Intimate Spaces: The Modern Flâneuse in Rhys, Barnes, and Loos.”. E-rea Revue électronique d’études sur le monde anglophone. ISSN 1638-1718. 16(2). doi: 10.4000/erea.7377. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
While the clever, detached, and entitled flâneur freely made his way about town, women historically were limited in their urban mobility, which made them invisible as critics of urban modernity. The flâneuse was an unimaginable notion. By hypothesizing an embodied flâneuse, this study will examine modern novels whose characters engage in flânerie in ways that may be at once similar and distinctive regarding the tradition. Three authors who present compelling figures of the flâneuse are the British author Jean Rhys, and American authors Djuna Barnes, and Anita Loos. The protagonists in these select texts obviously do not embody the “traditional” flâneur figure; however, their participation expands the timbre of flânerie by examining the urban and social populous from an alternative point of view.
Wagner, Johanna M. (2017). Repositioning Lorelei’s ‘Education’: Mind, Body, and Sex(uality) in Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies. ISSN 0093-3139. 44(4), p. 644–674. doi: 10.1353/lit.2017.0037. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2016). The Conventional and the Queer: Lily Bart, An Unlivable Ideal. SubStance. ISSN 0049-2426. 45(1), p. 116–139. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2016). Unwomanly Intellect: Melancholy, Maternity, and Lesbianism in Olive Moore's Spleen. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture. ISSN 2051-2856. 64(1), p. 42–61. doi: 10.1080/20512856.2016.1221623. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. & Demoor, Marysa (2013). The Slippery Slope of Interpellation: Framing Hero and Victim in Ethan Frome. Neophilologus: An International Journal of Modern and Mediaeval Language and Literature. ISSN 0028-2677. 97(2), p. 417–435. doi: 10.1007/s11061-012-9319-z. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2012). (Be)Longing in Quicksand: Framing Kinship and Desire More Queerly. College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies. ISSN 0093-3139. 39(3), p. 129–159. doi: 10.1353/lit.2012.0032. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2011). In the Place of Clare Kendry: A Gothic Reading of Race and Sexuality in Nella Larsen’s Passing. Callaloo. ISSN 0161-2492. 34(1), p. 143–157. Full text in Research Archive

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Wagner, Johanna M.; Duckworth, Melanie & Benjamin, Deanna (2025). Narratives of Hope and Despair: Ruin and Regeneration in Literature and Culture. Routledge. ISBN 9781041107583. 232 p. doi: 10.4324/9781003656692. Full text in Research Archive
Björk, Eva Margareta Lambertsson; Eschenbach, Jutta Cornelia & Wagner, Johanna M. (2021). Women and Fairness: Navigating an Unfair World. Waxmann Verlag. ISBN 9783830943655. 196 p. Full text in Research Archive

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Wagner, Johanna M. & Duckworth, Melanie (2025). Introduction. In Wagner, Johanna M.; Duckworth, Melanie & Benjamin, Deanna (Ed.), Narratives of Hope and Despair: Ruin and Regeneration in Literature and Culture. Routledge. ISSN 9781041107583. p. 1–12. doi: 10.4324/9781003656692-1. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2024). The Problem of Shirley in Shirley: Biopic, Adaptation, and the Author. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2023). Challenging Times for Teaching American Literature. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. & Cole, Kirsti K. (2023). Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Digital Rhetoric, Misinformation, Trust. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2023). Very Superstitious: The Untethered Mythos of Shirley Jackson’s American Gothic. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2023). Women Know the Streets: Orientation, Form, and the Sublime in Jean Rhys. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2021). Book Review: Jody Cardinal, Deirdre E. Egan-Ryan, and Julia Lisella (eds.), Modernist Women Writers and American Social Engagement Lexington Books, 2019, 315 pages. IdeAs: Idées d’Amérique. 17. doi: 10.4000/ideas.10541. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2021). Land of Promise: God and Excess in Las Vegas. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2021). Nevertheless... In Björk, Eva Margareta Lambertsson; Eschenbach, Jutta Cornelia & Wagner, Johanna M. (Ed.), Women and Fairness: Navigating an Unfair World. Waxmann Verlag. ISSN 9783830943655. p. 9–16. doi: 10.31244/9783830993650. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2021). “Land of Promise: God and Excess in Las Vegas” Workshop. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2021). “Of Hope and Ruin: Orientation and the Sublime in Jean Rhys’ Gothic City”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2020). “Gothic Mystery, and a Bit of Sex: ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ and ‘The Turn of the Screw,’”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2019). “Ugly Feelings and the Uncanny in The Babadook, Goodnight Mommy, and Hereditary”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2019). The American Gothic and “The Yellow Wall-paper”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2019). “Exhaling Modernisms: Elizabeth Smart, Djuna Barnes, Jean Rhys, Nella Larsen, and the Sublimity of Despair,”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2019). “The Technology of Mommy: the Sublime and Uncanny in The Babadook, Goodnight Mommy, and Hereditary,” University of Kent, Gothic Feminisms: , Canterbury, May 2019. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2018). “The War on Women: How the GOP Framed Issues Without and Against Women, 2010-2012”. Full text in Research Archive
Larsen, Elin Strand; Maktabi, Rania & Wagner, Johanna M. (2018). Girl Power i politikken? Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2017). "Foreign Places, Intimate Spaces: Flânerie and Dandyism’s Modern Progeny". Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2017). The Humanities, American Anti-intellectualism, and Judith Butler: A Return to Her Critics. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2017). The Boundaries of Lorelei Lee: Adaptation and Transmediation of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2016). “The Salem Witch Trials, the 1950s, and The Crucible”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2016). “The Gothic: An Introduction”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2016). Architectonics of the Uncanny Bildungsroman: Rebecca and The Haunting. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2016). “Breaking Biopower: Olive Moore’s Spleen and Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2015). “Round Robin and the Singer Affect: Nightwood and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2015). “Today’s Academic Job Market.” Roundtable. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2014). “Eliot and His Problems: TS Eliot and the Modern Mind. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2014). “Everyday Sexism”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2014). “Uncanny Melancholy and the Maternal in Olive Moore’s Spleen”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2013). “Ta(l)king Women out of the Picture 2010-2012: Intersections of GOP Anti-intellectual Rhetoric and the War on Women. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2013). “Massive Gravitational Pull: Robin’s Disorienting Time in Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2013). “Judith Butler: Influences, Thought and Theory”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2012). “Judith Butler: An Introduction”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2011). “As I Lay Dying in Context: the American South,”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2011). “SlutWalks: Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk!(?)”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2010). Book Review. Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness by Mark Wray. Mississippi Quarterly. ISSN 0026-637X. 63(3-4), p. 735–738. doi: 10.1353/mss.2010.0021. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2009). “The Trouble in Being Difficult: Judith Butler’s Naughty/Knotty Theoretical Style,” International Literary Criticism & Theory Conference Series. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2008). “’Well, Sydney – what have I done?’: Sydney, Mrs. Kerr, and Devastating Homoerotics in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Hotel”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2008). “The Work and Times of Djuna Barnes”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2006). “Theorizing the Third Wave: Seven Women, Seven Perspectives.” Roundtable Discussion. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2006). “Meaning in, Desire of the Gendered Body: Boethius’ Lady Philosophy as Consolation Figure”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2006). “The Architectonics of Clare Kendry: Disrupting ‘Security’ through Gothic Place in Nella Larsen’s Passing”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2006). “Violent Men, Unfortunate Women: Homosexual Panic in Dracula,”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2005). “Visible Workings of Desire: Homosexual Panic and Violence in Bram Stoker’s Dracula”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2005). “A Failed Consolation: Pearl and the Gendered Body.” , Kalamazoo, May 2005. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2005). “The Failure of Pearl: Consolation and the Gendered Body”. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2005). “William Faulkner Biography and As I Lay Dying". Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2004). “William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying” Rosemarie Dombrowski, ASU. Full text in Research Archive
Wagner, Johanna M. (2002). “Edenic Drag: Adam and Eve’s Ambiguous Gender, Original Versus Imitation in Paradise Lost.” , Las Vegas, May 2002. Full text in Research Archive

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Published June 12, 2018 4:28 PM - Last modified Sep. 15, 2026 2:02 PM