Paul Lewis
Professor Emeritus
Paul Lewis
Ph.D.
Contact
Stokes Hall S449
Telephone: 617-552-3710
Email: lewisp@bc.edu
Education
- A.B., City College of New York
- M.A., University of Manitoba
- Ph.D., University of New Hampshire
Research Interests
Literary Boston; American Humor Since 1980; American Literature: 1790-1860; Gothic Fiction
Department
Biography
Paul Lewis is an Americanist, a past president of the Poe Studies Association, the curator of exhibitions on literary Boston, and the neologist who coined the word 鈥淔rankenfood.鈥� The author of听Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict,听Comic Effects: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Humor in Literature, and听A Is for Asteroids, Z Is for Zombies: A Bedtime Book about the Coming Apocalypse, Lewis led the Boston Poems Project and edited听The Citizen Poets of Boston: A Collection of Forgotten Poems, 1789-1820,听for the University Press of New England.听As the BOD chair of the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, Inc., Lewis worked with others to celebrate Poe in the city of his birth by having a square at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South dedicated to Poe in 2010 and then installing a statue of Poe in it in 2014. In addition to articles and book chapters on American literature, controversial humor, and literary Boston, Lewis has published opinion, humor, and feature pieces in such places as the听New York Times,听滨nternational Herald Tribune,听Washington Post,听Chicago Tribune,听Los Angeles Times,听New York Newsday,听Atlanta Constitution,听Boston Globe,听Philadelphia Inquirer,听Old House,听National Post听(Canada),听Tikkun, and听贬补补谤别迟锄听(Israel).
Selected Publications
- A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies: A Bedtime Book about the Coming Apocalypse, Kenneth Lamug, Illustrator, Andrews McMeel, 2017. 听听听听
- Editor, , University Press of New England, 2016. 听 听 听 听 听
- , The University of Chicago Press, 2006.
- Comic Effects: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Humor in Literature, State University of New York Press, 1989.
- Curator, , John J. Burns Library, Boston College, October 15, 2015鈥揓anuary 24, 2016.
- Curator, , An exhibition at the Boston Public Library and Massachusetts Historical Society, March 28-July 30, 2012.
- Curator, , Boston Public Library, December 17, 2009-March 31, 2010.
- "How is a Rebus Like a Time听Machine?"听Early American Literature, 58:2 (2023), 423-432.
- "The First Caricature of Poe Reconsidered,"听Edgar Allan Poe Review, 23:2 (2022), 228-31; and "Letter to the Editor," Edgar Allan Poe Review, 24:1 (2023), 127-128.
- "'The Raven': Imitated, Admired, and Sometimes Mocked,"听Edgar Allan Poe Review, 22:2 (Autumn 2021), 274-311.
- 鈥溾�橳he mystery which binds me still鈥�: Poe鈥檚 Traumatic, Complex, and Fertile Bereavement,鈥澨�Edgar Allan Poe Review, 20: 2(Autumn 2019), 219-38.听
- 鈥溾�楲ines Written by a Lady鈥�: "Judith Sargent Murraty听and a Mystery of Feminist Authorship,鈥澨�New England Quarterly, XCII:4(December 2019), 615-32.
- 鈥淭eaching the Terrible; Or, Taking William Charles White鈥檚听Orlando: Or Parental Persecution, A Tragedy, to School,鈥� [Provocation essay],听Early American Literature, 54:3(2019), 621-32.
- "Waiting to Be Found: The Citizen Poets of Philadelphia and New York,"听Early American Literature, 52:3(2017), 679鈥�90.
- "Who Let 'The Pigs' Out? Or Why Edgar Allan Poe Wouldn't, or Couldn't, or Almost Certainly Didn't Write the Most Snarky American Poem of 1835," New England Quarterly, March 2015, 126鈥�140.
- Open Source with Christopher Lydon (WBUR) on Poe and Boston, October 27, 2014.
- Radio Boston (WBUR) on the Poe statue project, April 16, 2014.
- 鈥淟ongfellow鈥檚 Serenity and Poe鈥檚 Prediction: An Antebellum Turning Point,鈥� New England Quarterly 86:1 (March 2012): 144-158. Received the James Gargano award for the best article on Poe published in 2012.
- 鈥�The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston,鈥� in Seth C. Bruggeman, Ed., Born in the U.S.A.: Birth and Commemoration in American Public Memory, University of Massachusetts Press, Public History in Historical Perspective Series, 2012. (co-authored)
- "," Baltimore Sun, May 12, 2020.
- "" Boston Globe, December 26, 2019.
- 鈥�,鈥� Chicago Tribune, December 9, 2019.听
- 鈥淏oston Globe Magazine, May 12, 2019.
- 鈥淲hy is Boston鈥檚 most important literary site a food court?" Boston Globe Magazine, October 14, 2018.
- "The Great, the Good, and the Deliciously Awful: Why Boston Needs a Literary Trail," Boston Globe, April 1, 2012, K,12.
- 鈥淲hat鈥檚 So Funny about a Dead Terrorist? Toward an Ethics of Humor for the Digital Age,鈥� in A Decade of Dark Humor: Humor, Irony, and Post-9/11 Politics, Ted Gournelos and Viveca Greene, Eds. University of Mississippi Press, 2011.
- "," Boston Globe, March 6, 2011.
- WGBH Radio on Poe and Boston, November 25, 2011.
- Great Poe Debate, Free Library of Philadelphia, January 13, 2009 []
- Editor, 鈥淭he Muhammad Cartoons and Humor Research鈥� in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 21-1 (2008): 1-46.
- ": The Risks of Irony in the Digital Age, Electronic Journal of Communication 18:2, 3, & 4 (2008).
- "" (op-ed), Providence Journal, October 31, 2007.
- "Beyond Empathy: Sarah Silverman and the Limits of Comedy," Tikkun, September-October, 2007, 88-89.
- "Painful Laughter: The Collapse of Humor in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories," reprinted in Charles L. P. Silet, ed., The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays, Scarecrow Press, 2006.
- "And divided we laugh: the year in humor," Boston Globe, December 29, 2006.
- "Meanwhile: Laughing all the way to the war," International Herald Tribune, December 8, 2006.
- "Funny Thing About Elections," Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 2006.
- "A 'Wild' and 'Homely' Narrative: Resisting Argument in 'The Black Cat'" Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism, 35 (2002):1-14.
- "," Washington Post, February 26, 1997.
- "," New York Times, September 23, 1992.
- "," Chicago Tribune, March 26, 1986.