Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf (born 1957) is a Professor of German Literature at the University of Münster, Germany, and holds a chair in German Literary History with special focus on Modernity and Contemporary Literature. Her fields of research include Autobiography/Autofiction, Literary Theory, Rhetoric, Literary and Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, the relation of Religion, Politics and Literature as well as Law and Literature.
Life
Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf studied from 1976 to 1987 Germanics and History at the Eberhards-Karl-Universität Tübingen, Germany. In 1987 she obtained her doctorate degree (Dr. phil.) from Tübingen University with a dissertation on Mysticism and Modernity (title: Mystik der Moderne). From 1987 to 1994, Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of „Literary Studies“ at the University of Konstanz. As a member of the team of Professor v. Graevenitz, she completed her habilitation in 1994 with a study on the Melancholy of Literature (title: Die Melancholie der Literatur).
From 1995 until 1998 she was Professor for New German Studies, especially for the Theory of Literature and Rhetoric, at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Since 1998 she is Professor for Modern German Literature at the University of Münster. She held Visiting Professorships at the University of Washington in Seattle, the University of Kansas, Lawrence, the Xi’an International Studies University, China, and at the National Mirzo-Ulugbek University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf is Principal Investigator in the Cluster of Excellence „Religion and Politics, Dynamics of Tradition and Innovation“ and conducts a subproject in the CRC 1385 „Law and Literature“ at Münster University. From 2004 until 2010 she was a Senator for the German Research Foundation (DFG=Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft) and from 2010 until 2019 she acted as a Member of the Selection Committee for the Allocation of Humboldt Research Fellowships of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. Since 2020 she is Member of the DFG-Review Board 105 „Literary Studies“. In the year 2014 Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf was elected as Ordinary Member of the „North Rhine-Westfalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts“ (Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaft). Since 2018 she is Member of the University Council of Münster. Furthermore, since 2010 she is a Member of the IVG-International Board (IVG=Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik/International Association for Germanic Studies).
Selected publications
Author
Sich entscheiden. Momente der Autobiographie bei Goethe. Göttingen: Wallstein 2020, . with Jürgen Petersen: Einführung in die neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft. Ein Arbeitsbuch. 8th ed. Berlin: Erich Schmidt 2009, . with Hendrik Blumentrath, Julia Bodenburg, Roger Hillmann: Transkulturalität. Türkisch-deutsche Konstellationen in Literatur und Film, Literaturwissenschaft Theorie & Beispiele. Münster: Aschendorff 2007, . Autobiographie. 2nd ed., Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler 2005, . Die Melancholie der Literatur. Diskursgeschichte und Textfiguration. Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler 1997, . Mystik der Moderne. Die visionäre Ästhetik der deutschen Literatur im 20. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler 1989, .