My research and teaching centers on two broad areas. The first is American literature, especially from the nineteenth century. Under this heading I have a special interest in popular culture, comic writers in general, and Mark Twain in particular. The second broad area includes the tradition of Comedy in the west as well as non-literary comic arts in a variety of cultural settings. This second interest has lead me beyond literary criticism and aesthetics to study what other disciplines--such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, and medicine--have to say about the phenomenon of laughter, its value to a social group as well as to an individual, and the various cultural practices and arts which express a comic attitude. My publications include essays on the tall tale; comic images of the common man in antebellum America; George Washington Harris; Mark Twain; Frank Norris; Hunter S. Thompson; and Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes.

Areas of Interest
19th-century American Literature, Mark Twain, comic art and literature, popular culture

Education
BA, Loyola University, Los Angeles
MA, PhD, University of Oregon