Dr. Kevin Pelletier

Professor Pelletier's research focuses on early-U.S. literature and culture. His first book, Apocalyptic Sentimentalism: Love and Fear in U.S. Antebellum Literature (University of Georgia Press), examines how antislavery writers used warnings of God's apocalyptic wrath, and the terror these warnings produced, to generate interracial sympathy. With readings of diverse figures like David Walker, Nat Turner, Maria Stewart, Lydia Maria Child, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown, Professor Pelletier illustrates how antislavery discourse worked to redefine violence and vengeance as the ultimate expression (rather than denial) of love and sympathy.

His current research examines western comedic traditions, with a special emphasis on American humor writing and performance, including humor from the Old Southwest and vaudeville through twentieth-century film and the rise of stand-up comedy. He has an article-in-progess titled “‘The Reign of Humbug’: Joseph G. Baldwin, P.T. Barnum, and the Economy of American Humor.”