Paul Lewis (professor)
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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[1]
Professor Lewis is on the editorial board of Humor: The International Journal of Humor Research.
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.
[edit] 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[2], The Chronicle of Higher Education[3], The Boston College Chronicle[4]
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.[5]
[edit] 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.
[edit] References
- ^ Paul Lewis, faculty profile
- ^ American humour, ABC, 2 December 2006
- ^ "Taking Humor Seriously Without Being Glum"
- ^ That's Funny - Or Is It? Asks Humor Scholar Lewis
- ^ Rod A. Martin (2007) The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach, Elsevier, ISBN 012372564X p.140
