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
Quothing 鈥淭he Raven鈥�: The First Responses to America鈥檚 Most Famous Poem, Including Twenty-Nine Parodies Published During Poe鈥檚 Lifetime, forthcoming from Mercer University Press in 2026.
鈥溾�楴auseous Flattery鈥� and 鈥楢ustere Virtues鈥�: Higginson鈥檚 Bostonian View of Poe,鈥� ESQ 70:2-4 (2024): 297-317.
"How is a Rebus Like a Time听Machine?"听Early American Literature 58:2 (2023): 423-32.
"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): 27-128.
"'The Raven': Imitated, Admired, and Sometimes Mocked,"听Edgar Allan Poe Review 22:2 (Autumn 2021): 274-311.
"," Baltimore Sun, May 12, 2020.
鈥溾�楾he mystery which binds me still鈥�: Poe鈥檚 Traumatic, Complex, and Fertile Bereavement,鈥�听Edgar Allan Poe Review 20: 2 (Autumn 2019): 219-38.听
鈥溾�楲ines Written by a Lady鈥�: "Judith Sargent Murray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.
"," Boston Globe, December 26, 2019.
鈥�,鈥� Chicago Tribune, December 9, 2019.听
鈥�? Boston 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.
A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies: A Bedtime Book about the Coming Apocalypse, Kenneth Lamug, Illustrator, Andrews McMeel, 2017.听听
"Waiting to Be Found: The Citizen Poets of Philadelphia and New York,"听Early American Literature 52:3(2017): 679鈥�90.
Editor,听, University Press of New England, 2016. 听听听听
Curator,听, John J. Burns Library, Boston College, October 15, 2015鈥揓anuary 24, 2016.
"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,"听New England Quarterly, March 2015: 126鈥�40.
Open Source with Christopher Lydon (WBUR)听program听on Poe and Boston, October 27, 2014.
Radio Boston (WBUR)听听on the Poe statue project, April 16, 2014.
Curator,听, an exhibition at the Boston Public Library and Massachusetts Historical Society, March 28-July 30, 2012.
鈥淟ongfellow鈥檚 Serenity and Poe鈥檚 Prediction: An Antebellum Turning Point,鈥澨�New England Quarterly听86:1 (March 2012): 144-158. Received the James Gargano award for the best article on Poe published in 2012.
鈥淭he Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston,鈥� in听Born in the U.S.A.: Birth and Commemoration in American Public Memory, ed. Seth C. Bruggeman, University of Massachusetts Press, Public History in Historical Perspective Series, 2012, 216-39 (co-authored).
"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听A Decade of Dark Humor: Humor, Irony, and Post-9/11 Politics, ed. Ted Gournelos and Viveca Greene, University of Mississippi Press, 2011, 214-32.
"," Boston Globe, March 6, 2011.
WGBH Radio听interview听on Poe and Boston, November 25, 2011.
Great Poe Debate, Free Library of Philadelphia, January 13, 2009 []
Editor and Participant, 鈥淭he Muhammad Cartoons and Humor Research鈥� in听HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research听21-1 (2008): 1-46.
"(Mis)reading Borat: The Risks of Irony in the Digital Age,听Electronic Journal of Communication听18:2, 3, & 4 (2008).
"Stephen Colbert, Character and Candidate" (op-ed), Providence Journal, October 31, 2007.
"Beyond Empathy: Sarah Silverman and the Limits of Comedy," Tikkun, September-October 2007, 88-89.
, University of Chicago Press, 2006.
"Painful Laughter: The Collapse of Humor in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories," in The Films of Woody Allen: Critical Essays, ed. Charles L. P. Silet,听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'"听Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism 35 (2002):1-14.
"Hamlet: A Mature Reading," Washington Post, February 26, 1997.
"," New York Times, September 23, 1992.
Comic Effects: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Humor in Literature, State University of New York Press, 1989.
鈥淧oe鈥檚 Humor: A Psychological Analysis, Studies in Short Fiction 26:4 (Fall 1989): 531-46.
鈥淛oke and Anti-joke: Three Jews and a Blindfold, Journal of Popular Culture 21:1 (Summer 1987): 63-73.
"Disaster as a Laughing Matter," Chicago Tribune, March 26, 1986.
鈥淢别濒惫颈濒濒别鈥檚 Pierre and the Psychology of Incongruity, Studies in the Novel 15:3 (Fall 1983): 183-201.
鈥淢ysterious Laughter: Humor and Fear in Gothic Fiction,鈥� GENRE XIV:3 (Fall 1981): 309-27.
鈥淟ife by Water: Characterization and Salvation in 鈥楾he Waste Land,鈥濃�� Mosaic XI:4 (Summer 1978): 81-90.