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Martin Eisner

Assistant Professor of Italian

Professor Eisner came to Duke after a decade in New York City, where he received several degrees from Columbia University, including a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature and Italian. He teaches medieval Italian literature in the Romance Studies department and regularly offers a course on Dante’s Divine Comedy in English, so that all students can experience the great centerpiece of the Western literary tradition. He also hopes to excite interest in the works of the two other authors that make up the famed “Three Crowns” of the Italian Trecento: Boccaccio’s bawdy and brilliant Decameron and Petrarch’s refined lyric collection, commonly known as his Rime, touchstone texts for the later European novella and lyric traditions, respectively. Although Prof. Eisner would love to guide students through the dark wood of Dante or the pleasure gardens of Boccaccio at some point over the next few years, he will also be more than happy to help them memorize some medieval Italian poems so they can dazzle friends and family. Other bits of practical knowledge will hopefully be disseminated over the course of the year, depending on students’ desires and needs, but one suspects that both food and film will occupy the center of those experiences.

Resides 103 Bassett Hall

(919) 660-3129
martin.eisner@duke.edu
http://www.romancestudies.aas.duke.edu/