I believe the "medieval" attempt to make everything fit into a whole (universities, alchemy, and all--but not forcing belief), is the only alternative to nihilism. It is a lonely pilgrimage, but delight comes when you meet another thinker who pushes back against reductionism and says, "I thought I was the only one." I even have a theme song to unite us: To dream the impossible dream.
Wow! This is definitely a good-to-know! I really enjoyed reading this article. I can relate as I grew up with a lot of bookshelves at home and having a bookstore as my parents' business.
I really like the cover design for The Discarded Image and the three other works with the same cover style.
I have a 'Complete Works of C. S. Lewis on my ereader that only includes three of his scholarly titles: The Allegory of Love, A Preface to Paradise Lost, and An Experiment in Criticism. So much for completeness...
Thank you for showing us the “through-line” in Lewis’s a academic work. This is very helpful to me to begin to organize my thinking regarding this part of Lewis. I’ve been intimidated to start English Literature In The Sixteenth Century, but your post motivates me. I appreciate your work!
Lewis famously once said that no one was writing the books he wanted to read, so he had to write them himself. As a result, it is necessary, as he did with other authors, to attempt to see his work as a unified effort with recurring themes. And that has happened because his works bleed into each other- the religious and literary symbolism in Narnia and his other works of fiction can't really be understood unless we are aware that he also wrote works on the Christian religion and studies in literature of all eras.
I read "An Experiment In Criticism" when I was researching my book on the history of American television animation (which took nearly as long to write as Lewis spent on "English Literature In The 16th Century..."), and I found mentally that I could apply his arguments on how to analyze literature dovetailed with the manner in which I wanted to discuss animation. We were both trying to take seriously things other people dismissed as folly in the past...
And I certainly also took inspiration from the manner in which Lewis (and his Oxford colleague J.R.R. Tolkien) used their knowledge of the past as fuel for fantastic stories. It encouraged me to write about the characters and themes of animation in a similar fictional fashion.
I believe the "medieval" attempt to make everything fit into a whole (universities, alchemy, and all--but not forcing belief), is the only alternative to nihilism. It is a lonely pilgrimage, but delight comes when you meet another thinker who pushes back against reductionism and says, "I thought I was the only one." I even have a theme song to unite us: To dream the impossible dream.
Thanks so much for this fabulous intro to Lewis' literary scholarship.
What an epic compendium of Lewis's work. Thank you.
Wow! This is definitely a good-to-know! I really enjoyed reading this article. I can relate as I grew up with a lot of bookshelves at home and having a bookstore as my parents' business.
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I really like the cover design for The Discarded Image and the three other works with the same cover style.
I have a 'Complete Works of C. S. Lewis on my ereader that only includes three of his scholarly titles: The Allegory of Love, A Preface to Paradise Lost, and An Experiment in Criticism. So much for completeness...
Thank you for showing us the “through-line” in Lewis’s a academic work. This is very helpful to me to begin to organize my thinking regarding this part of Lewis. I’ve been intimidated to start English Literature In The Sixteenth Century, but your post motivates me. I appreciate your work!
This might interest you. A study of how Ireland is persistently overlooked as central to his identity.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-94390-4
A detail of his biography that I know but have never explored. Thanks for sharing that!
Have a review coming up sometime in the 'Irish Times'.
Lewis famously once said that no one was writing the books he wanted to read, so he had to write them himself. As a result, it is necessary, as he did with other authors, to attempt to see his work as a unified effort with recurring themes. And that has happened because his works bleed into each other- the religious and literary symbolism in Narnia and his other works of fiction can't really be understood unless we are aware that he also wrote works on the Christian religion and studies in literature of all eras.
I read "An Experiment In Criticism" when I was researching my book on the history of American television animation (which took nearly as long to write as Lewis spent on "English Literature In The 16th Century..."), and I found mentally that I could apply his arguments on how to analyze literature dovetailed with the manner in which I wanted to discuss animation. We were both trying to take seriously things other people dismissed as folly in the past...
And I certainly also took inspiration from the manner in which Lewis (and his Oxford colleague J.R.R. Tolkien) used their knowledge of the past as fuel for fantastic stories. It encouraged me to write about the characters and themes of animation in a similar fictional fashion.
What a cool adaptation of Lewis’s method.
I am trying to live by Lewis’ credo and write the books I want to read myself.