Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

C.S. Lewis: Literary Criticism And Critical Theory A Primary And Secondary Bibliography, James P. Helfers

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Excerpt: "A major problem with compiling a focused bibliography of texts related to C. S. Lewis’ work as a literary critic and critical theorist is that critical theory as a concept is a relatively recent invention. One can think of critical theory as the explicit consideration of the ontological and epistemological status of objects of literary study, and as the philosophical consideration of various aspects of the interpretation of texts (hermeneutics). Although a number of philosophical writings since the Greek Classical Period have significance for critical theory, the idea that an interpretive approach to texts can be considered philosophically probably …

Toward A Narnian Valuation Of Nature: Participatory Ontology, Jeff Sellars

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Lewis’ appreciation of nature begs the question: from where does the natural world gain its purpose and meaning? Lewis’ valuation of nature can be understood perhaps best through participatory ontology: the immanent world is valued and saved only through the participation of the divine; the lower life is brought up into the higher life. This view can be seen very openly and unmistakably throughout The Chronicles of Narnia, where the natural Narnian world of plants, animals, trees, and creatures of all kinds are celebrated, and some are eventually included in the New Narnia.

Diversity In Times Of Adversity: Sounding A Horn In Narnia, D. G. Kehl

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Why, one might ask, does Lewis go to such great lengths to specify twelve different varieties of animals—“all you variety of creatures”—if not to stress diversity? In Letters to Malcolm Lewis wrote: “If grace perfects nature it must expand all our natures into the full richness of the diversity which God intended when He made them.”

Front Matter (Volume 2, Issue 1), Grayson Carter

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

No abstract provided.

Backmatter (Volume 1, Issue 1), Grayson Carter

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis Can Train Us To Wrestle With The Modern And Postmodern World, William Gentrup

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A lengthy review of Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle with the Modern and Postmodern World. By Louis Markos. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.

ISBN 0-8054-2778-3. Pp. xv + 174. $19.99 [paper].

Grooving A Symbol: Turkish Delight In Narnia, Del Kehl

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Excerpt: Imagine yourself a writer living in Britain during the late 1940s. You are writing a book for children, but you believe that a book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then, and that a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. The challenge before you is to choose something a witch might offer enticingly to a boy of ten or eleven, most likely some delicious viand, to symbolize temptation, solicitation to evil. What would it be? This was the challenge facing C. S. Lewis as he wrote The Lion, …

A Time For Joy: The Ancestry And Apologetic Force Of C.S. Lewis' Sehnsucht, James P. Helfers

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Excerpt: "In sum, it is clear that Lewis owes a great debt to Wordsworth’s idea of Joy, a debt he acknowledges explicitly through the title of his autobiography. Their views of the experience have much in common: for both it is an intense long- ing, for both it undergirds their sense of the reality of an eternal realm, as well as guiding them toward either virtue (in Wordsworth’s case) or a contemplation of and belief in the eternal (in Lewis’ case). Both of their experiences connect, ei- ther explicitly or implicitly, with the philosophical notion of the sublime. There are …