Word and Story in C. S. Lewis

by Peter J Schakel (Editor), Charles A Huttar (Editor)

Overview

Word and Story has 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781556355875
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	04/14/2008
Series:	C. S. Lewis Secondary Studies
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Peter J. Schakel is the Peter C. and Emajean Cook Professor of English at Hope College. He is the author of five books on C. S. Lewis: Reading with the Heart, Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis: A Study of ""Till We Have Faces"", Imagination and the Arts in C.S. Lewis, The Way into Narnia: A Reader's Guide, and Is Your Lord Large Enough? He has also coedited several literature textbooks with Jack Ridl. Charles A. Huttar is Emeritus Professor of English at Hope College. He is the editor of Imagination and the Spirit: Essays in Literature and the Christian Faith presented to Clyde S. Kilby, coeditor of The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams and Scandalous Truths: Essays by and about Susan Howatch, and author of many essays on Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Abbreviations     ix
Introduction   Peter J. Schakel     1
Language
C. S. Lewis and the Making of Metaphor   Lyle H. Smith, Jr.     11
C. S. Lewis as a Student of Words   Michael A. Covington     29
The Sound of Silence: Language and Experience in Out of the Silent Planet   Verlyn Flieger     42
Essential Speech: Language and Myth in the Ransom Trilogy   Gregory Wolfe     58
Sanctifying the Literal: Images and Incarnation in Miracles   Thomas Werge     76
A Lifelong Love Affair with Language: C. S. Lewis's Poetry   Charles A. Huttar     86
Language and Self-Consciousness: The Making and Breaking of C. S. Lewis's Personae   Stephen Medcalf     109
Narrative
Theology in Stories: C. S. Lewis and the Narrative Quality of Experience   Gilbert Meilaender     147
Orual's Story and the Art of Retelling: A Study of Till We Have Faces   Mara E. Donaldson     157
Bent Language in Perelandra: The Storyteller's Temptation   Donald E. Glover     171
C. S. Lewis and the Tradition of Visionary Romance   John D. Haigh     182
Myth or Allegory? Archetype and Transcendence in the Fiction of C. S. Lewis   Paul Piehler     199
C. S. Lewis's Ransom Stories and Their Eighteenth-Century Ancestry   Jared C. Lobdell     213
The Multiple Worlds of the Narnia Stories   Michael Murrin     232
"Caught Up into the Larger Pattern": Images and Narrative Structures in C. S. Lewis's Fiction   Colin Manlove     256
Perelandra Revisited in the Light of Modern Allegorical Theory   Marius Buning     277
Afterword   Owen Barfield     299
Contributors     303
Permissions     307
Index     309

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"[Word and Story is] superior . . . to any other collection that has so far appeared [on C. S. Lewis]. . . . One comes across many observations in this book that evoke the response, not just of an acquiescent nod, but also of further reflection."
—Owen Barfield, from the afterword

Editorial Reviews

"[Word and Story is] superior . . . to any other collection that has so far appeared [on C. S. Lewis]. . . . One comes across many observations in this book that evoke the response, not just of an acquiescent nod, but also of further reflection."
—Owen Barfield, from the afterword

From the Publisher