Paul Lewis (professor)

Paul Lewis is professor of English in Boston College, Massachusetts, USA, specializing in humor, American literature and Gothic fiction. M.A.: University of Manitoba, Ph.D.: University of New Hampshire [http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/english/faculty/facalpha/lewis.html Paul Lewis] , faculty profile]

Professor Lewis is on the editorial board of "".

He is also a freelance writer, who invented the neologism "frankenfood", critical of genetically modified food, in a letter he wrote to the "New York Times" in response to the decision of the US Food and Drug Administration to allow companies to market genetically modified food. The term "Frankenfood" has become a battle cry of the European side in the US-EU agricultural trade war.

Humor research

His 2006 book "Cracking Up" about the new heyday of the politically charged humor in the United States received significant coverage in the media, ABC Radio [ [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/saturdayextra/stories/2006/1801750.htm American humour] , ABC, 2 December 2006 ] , "The Chronicle of Higher Education" [ [http://chronicle.com/subscribe/login?url=/weekly/v53/i21/21b01001.htm "Taking Humor Seriously Without Being Glum"] ] , "The Boston College Chronicle" [ [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/chronicle/v15/o5/writers.html That's Funny - Or Is It? Asks Humor Scholar Lewis] ]

Lewis maintains a rather conservative approach to humor. It particular, he argues that disparaging forms of humor, such as sexist humor and racist humor propagate and legitimize negative stereotypes and contribute to the perpetuation of prejudices, while some other humor scholars argue that humor is valuable for its iconoclastic role. [Rod A. Martin (2007) "The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach", "Elsevier", ISBN 012372564X [http://books.google.com/books?id=ieAcp2Z_zkIC&pg=PA398&dq=%22cracking+up:+american%22&sig=IOs_2zNX7NV06vZjuK5BgJuEY2U#PPA140,M1 p.140] ]

Bibliography

* Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict, The University of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 0-226-47699-5
* Comic Effects: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Humor in Literature, State University of New York Press, 1989.

References