Martin G Eisner, Assistant Professor of Italian

Martin G Eisner

Office Location: 
Office Phone:  (919) 660-3129
Email Address:   send me a message
Web Page: http://www.duke.edu/~mge3/

Professor Eisner has a B.A. in Italian (1999) and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (2005) from Columbia University. His research and teaching focus on medieval Italian literature, particularly the works of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. He is in the process of completing his first book, tentatively entitled “The Poetics of Mediation: Boccaccio and the Cultivation of Italian Literature in the Age of Manual Reproduction,” which analyzes Boccaccio’s transcriptions of the vernacular works of Dante, Petrarch, and Cavalcanti in what is now the Vatican's Chigi L V 176. His next book project, "Rematerializing Literary History: The Afterlives of Dante’s ‘Vita Nuova’" continues to integrate philological materials into literary criticism, but takes a diachronic rather than synchronic approach in its analysis of the material tradition of Dante's first book, from its earliest manuscripts to the most recent editions and adaptations. He is also the author of published and forthcoming articles on Petrarch and Boccaccio. His other research interests include medieval lyric poetry, the European novella tradition, and material philology/textual theory/book history. For more bibliographic details, see his publications and honors. His courses on Dante and Boccaccio are both taught in English, but there will be discussion sections for students who can read the text in Italian as well. In the Spring 2010, he will teach a seminar for undergraduates and graduate students on The Materiality of Literature (RS150S/200S).

Education:

  • PhD, Columbia University, 2005
  • BA, Columbia University, 1999

Teaching (Spring 2010):

  • MEDREN 100S.02, THE MATERIALITY OF LITERATURE
    Languages 305, Th 04:25 PM-06:55 PM
  • ROMST 150S.02, THE MATERIALITY OF LITERATURE Synopsis
    Languages 305, Th 04:25 PM-06:55 PM
  • LIT 150S.02, MATERIALITY OF LITERATURE
    Languages 305, Th 04:25 PM-06:55 PM
  • ROMST 200S.02, SEM ROMANCE STUDIES(TOP) Synopsis
    Languages 305, Th 04:25 PM-06:55 PM

Research Interests: Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, medieval lyric poety, the European novella tradition, material philology/textual theory, and medieval mysticism

Current projects: philology, textual theory, editorial theory, Dante, Vita nuova, canzoniere, Bocccaccio

Professor Eisner has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Italian from Columbia University, where he completed a dissertation with the lengthy but descriptive title, "Bocccaccio Between Dante and Petrarch: The Chigiano Codex, the Terza Rima Trilogy, and the Shaping of Literary History," which addressed the relations among the "tre corone" as expressed in Boccaccio's vernacular manuscript production. His current book project, "Afterlives of Dante’s ‘Vita Nuova’: Materializing Meanings, Manuscript to Print," continues to integrate philological materials into literary criticism, but takes a diachronic rather than synchronic approach in its analysis of the material tradition of Dante's first book, from its earliest manuscripts to the most recent editions and adaptations. Other research interests include medieval lyric poety, the European novella tradition, material philology/textual theory, and medieval mysticism.

Areas of Interest:

Dante
Boccaccio
Petrarch
Medieval
Lyric
Poetry
Textual Theory
Philology
Mysticism
novella
canzoniere
Decameron
Commedia
Divine Comedy

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. M. Eisner and M. Schachter, Libido Sciendi: Apuleius, Boccaccio and the History of Sexuality, PMLA (Accepted, May, 2009)  [abs].
  2. Martin G. Eisner, “Giovanni Boccaccio”, in The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, edited by Choon Leong Seow, Hermann Spieckermann, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Bernard McGinn, Hans-Josef Klauck, and Eric Ziolkowski (2008), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter .
  3. Martin G. Eisner, Boccaccio’s Parodic Poetics of Purgatory: On Dante and the Truth of Fiction in Decameron III.8, in The Decameron: Third Day., edited by Pier Massimo Forni and Francesco Ciabattoni, eds. (Submitted, 2008) .
  4. Martin G. Eisner, Review of Vincenzo Traversa, ed. and trans. Giovanni Boccaccio, Theseid of the Nuptials of Emilia (Teseida delle nozze di Emilia), Heliotropia, vol. 5 (2008) .
  5. Martin G. Eisner, Review of Prue Shaw, ed. Dante: Monarchia on CD-ROM, The Medieval Review (2008) .