Kristina Marie Olson

Associate Professor

Medieval studies, Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, medieval chronicles, historiography, gender studies

My research investigates the intersection of history and literature in the works of medieval and early modern Italian authors, paying particular attention to matters of language, gender and reception. My first monograph, Courtesy Lost: Dante, Boccaccio and the Literature of History (University of Toronto Press, 2014), reads Dante’s literary and political influence on Boccaccio in the contexts of social, political, and economic transformations in the fourteenth century.

Sumptuous Literature: Clothing and Governance in Fourteenth-Century Italy, my current book project, explores the relationship between sumptuary statutes (laws which regulated clothing and displays of wealth) and the thematic treatments of luxurious dress and extravagant spending that can be found in the works of Italy’s “three crowns” of literature: Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, as well as other poets and chroniclers of the period. In order to maintain social order, sumptuary legislation and ecclesiastical admonitions targeted various displays of luxury: excessive spending on clothing, jewelry, and rituals, such as funereal practices and exorbitant wedding dowries. Sumptuous clothing, a visual language of its own that signified status, became an essential part of a poetic language that addressed politics, gender and civic identity.

Together with Christopher Kleinhenz (Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison), I am preparing a new edition of Approaches to Teaching Dante's Divine Comedy for the Modern Language Association's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series.

I serve as Vice President of the Dante Society of America and as Vice President of the American Boccaccio Association. (Links to these organizations are available under "Web Sites.")

Selected Publications

(See CV for complete list.)

Monograph

Courtesy Lost: Dante, Boccaccio and the Literature of History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. http://www.utppublishing.com/Courtesy-Lost-Dante-Boccaccio-and-the-Literature-of-History.html

Reviewed in: Choice (May 2015) 52: 9; Renaissance Quarterly 69:1 (Spring 2016): 360-362; Modern Language Review 111:2 (April 2016): 558-559; Heliotropia 12-13 (2015-16): 373-77; Nuova informazione bibliografica 2 (April-June 2016): 379-390; Annali d’italianistica 34 (2016): 552-53; Studi sul Boccaccio XLIV (2016): 432-35; Speculum 92:3 (July 2017): 873-75.

Edited Volumes

Approaches to Teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy. Second Edition. Edited with Christopher Kleinhenz. Modern Language Association. Series: Approaches to Teaching World Literature. (under contract)
Boccaccio 1313-2013. Edited with Francesco Ciabattoni and Elsa Filosa. Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2015.

Reviewed in: Renaissance Quarterly 70:1 (Spring 2017):372-73; Italian Culture 35:1 (2017): 53-4; The Medieval Review (2/12/16)

Open City: Seven Writers in Post-War Rome. Edited with William Weaver. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1999.

Selected Articles

"Shoes, Gowns, and Turncoats: Reconsidering Cacciaguida’s History of Florentine Fashion and Politics." Dante Studies: The Annual Publication of the Dante Society of America 134 (2016): 26-47.
"Uncovering the Historical Body of Florence: Dante, Forese Donati, and Sumptuary Legislation." Italian Culture 33:1 (March 2015): 1-15.
"Dante’s Urban American Vernacular: Sandow Birk’s Divine Comedy." Special Edition: "New Voices in Dante Criticism," of Dante Studies: The Annual Publication of the Dante Society of America 131 (2013): 143-169.
"The Language of Women as Written by Men: Dante, Boccaccio, and Gendered Histories of the Vernacular," Heliotropia 8-9 (2011-12). Reprinted in Heliotropia 700/10: A Boccaccio Anniversary Volume (LED, 2013), pp. 217-236.
"Resurrecting Dante’s Florence: Figural Realism in the Decameron and the Esposizioni," Modern Language Notes 124:1 (January 2009): 45-65.

Courses Taught

At George Mason University:

ITAL 110: Elementary Italian
ITAL 210: Intermediate Italian
ITAL 250: Gateway to Advanced Italian
ITAL 320: Italian Cinema / Neorealism and Global Cinema
ITAL 325: Major Italian Writers ("Dante's Divine Comedy"; "Dante's Inferno"; "Literature and the Black Death: Boccaccio's Decameron")
ITAL 330/331: Advanced Italian: Language and Culture
ITAL 340: Italian through the Arts (Film / Opera)
ITAL 420: Global and Local Italy
FRLN 330: Topics in World Literature
FRLN 550: Boccaccio's Decameron
HNRS 230: Cross-Cultural Perspectives ("The Language of Empire: Rome, Italy and Africa")

Thesis Advisor and Reader (at Mason)

USRP Mentor for Giovanna Uberti, August-December 2017. Project Title: “Urban Policing in Contemporary Italy.” George Mason University.
URSP Mentor and English Honors Thesis Advisor for Georgia Wood, June 2014-May 2015. Project Title: “The ‘Divine’ Revisited: Reflections of Dante’s Divine Comedy in Toni Morrison’s Trilogy.” George Mason University.

Extramural Teaching

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Fairfax, Virginia. Course title: Dante’s Inferno. Spring 2017.

Education

Ph.D., Department of Italian, Columbia University (2006)
M.A., Department of Italian, Columbia University (2001)
B.A., Division of Languages and Literatures, Bard College (1998)

Recent Presentations

“'Maintaining Neutrality in a Time of Moral Crisis': Silence, Cowardice and Activism.” Fordham University, New York, NY. April 27, 2017.
“Skirting the Issue: Clothing and Politics in Fourteenth-Century Italy.” Fenwick Fellow Lecture, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. April 13, 2017.
“Finding the Celestial Rose in Mecca: Sandow Birk's Divine Comedy.” University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA. April 10, 2017.
“Im/material Girls: Paradiso 15, Commentaries, and Giovanni Villani.” Villanova University, November 2, 2016.
"Dante, Boccaccio and Sumptuary Legislation in Italy during the 13th and 14th Centuries." University of New Hampshire, October 14, 2016.
“Panni corti and Minos’s Tail: Boccaccio’s History of Fashion and Governance in Esposizioni 5.” The Triennial Conference of the American Boccaccio Association. Duke University, September 30-October 2, 2016.