Word and Story in C. S. Lewis

by Schakel, Peter J.; Huttar, Charles A.

• ISBN13: 9781556355875
• ISBN10: 1556355874
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-14
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

Word and Storyhas broken new ground by enlisting well-known scholars in the examination of Lewis's ideas about language and narrative, both as stated in theory and as exemplified in practice. Never before has such clear, significant, and thorough work in these areas been brought together in one place.This compilation of sixteen essays demonstrates how an awareness of Lewis's ideas about language and narrative is essential to a full understanding and appreciation of his thought and works. The contributors examine Lewis's poetry, The Dark Woods, Studies in Words, and other works that have so far received little attention, in addition to more familiar parts of the Lewis canon. By approaching Lewis primarily as an artist and theorist, not just a Christian apologist, these essays offer new insights into his creative imagination, critical acumen, and his craftsmanship as a writer. One comes away from this book with a fresh vision and with heightened expectation, eager to return to Lewis's works.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Language
C. S. Lewis and the Making of Metaphor	p. 11
C. S. Lewis as a Student of Words	p. 29
The Sound of Silence: Language and Experience in Out of the Silent Planet	p. 42
Essential Speech: Language and Myth in the Ransom Trilogy	p. 58
Sanctifying the Literal: Images and Incarnation in Miracles	p. 76
A Lifelong Love Affair with Language: C. S. Lewis's Poetry	p. 86
Language and Self-Consciousness: The Making and Breaking of C. S. Lewis's Personae	p. 109
Narrative
Theology in Stories: C. S. Lewis and the Narrative Quality of Experience	p. 147
Orual's Story and the Art of Retelling: A Study of Till We Have Faces	p. 157
Bent Language in Perelandra: The Storyteller's Temptation	p. 171
C. S. Lewis and the Tradition of Visionary Romance	p. 182
Myth or Allegory? Archetype and Transcendence in the Fiction of C. S. Lewis	p. 199
C. S. Lewis's Ransom Stories and Their Eighteenth-Century Ancestry	p. 213
The Multiple Worlds of the Narnia Stories	p. 232
"Caught Up into the Larger Pattern": Images and Narrative Structures in C. S. Lewis's Fiction	p. 256
Perelandra Revisited in the Light of Modern Allegorical Theory	p. 277
Afterword	p. 299
Contributors	p. 303
Permissions	p. 307
Index	p. 309
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