Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Considering The Great Divorce (Parts Iii, Iv, & V), J. R. Christopher

Mythcon Proceedings

Part III is a close textual comparison of the English and American editions and the newspaper serialization. Part IV examines the underlying structure, comparing the encounters in Divorce with the organization of The Divine Comedy and concluding that Lewis’s book is not as tightly and hierarchically organized, either artistically or theologically. This section also attempts to categorize Divorce using Northrop Frye’s classification scheme laid out in The Anatomy of Criticism, and concludes with a debate about the merits of “destructive” criticism. Finally, Part V, considers a religious reading of Divorce, and how reading such a work is akin …