Nesta dissertação investigamos como a ficção envolve o leitor. Para isso, partimos da rejeição a Homero declarada por Calímaco, observando que a suposta diferença entre a literatura preferida pelo público e a literatura preferida pela crítica depende de dois fatores distintos. O primeiro é o simples fato de a crítica ler profissionalmente e o público ler por prazer. O segundo está relacionado à distinção entre recepção e uso da literatura proposta por C.S. Lewis. Na recepção, a obra tende a ser admirada por si; no uso, tende a ser instrumentalizada como suporte para um devaneio em que os desejos do próprio leitor são vicariamente satisfeitos. Observamos que essa devaneio, que Lewis chama de construção egoísta de castelos, e que inclui uma variante mórbida, tem um paralelo na noção girardiana do duplo angélico. Contudo, o devaneio depende da simpatia como definida por Adam Smith, a qual por sua vez depende de certa aprovação moral. Investigamos portanto o tipo de personagem que conquista a aprovação moral do leitor, contrastando os heróis homéricos com os cavaleiros cristãos a fim de verificar como o cristianismo dirige a aprovação moral para as vítimas, fazendo com que os heróis da ficção sejam pessoas perseguidas ou marginalizadas. / In this dissertation we investigate how fiction involves the reader. Starting Callimachuss rejection of Homer, we note that the supposed diference between the literature favoured by the public at large and the literature preferred by critics is actually twofold. First, critics read for business and the public reads for pleasure. Second, as proposed by C.S. Lewis, there is a distinction between the reception and use of literature. In reception, a work tends to be admired in itself, whereas in use it becomes a mere support for a sort of daydreaming in which the readers own desires are vicariously satisfied. We discuss this daydreaming called egotistic castle-building by Lewis, highlighting its morbid variant, which finds a parallel in the Girardian notion of the angelic double, developed from a reading of Proust. Now, as egotistic castle-building in its turn depends on sympathy as defined by Adam Smith, a concept which includes moral approval, we investigate the types of characters who obtain the moral approval of readers, contrasting the warriors from Homers poems with Christian knights in order to show that Christianity directs moral approval towards the victims. In a Christian society, fictional heroes must be people who are persecuted or at least marginalised.

Nesta dissertação investigamos como a ficção envolve o leitor. Para isso, partimos da rejeição a Homero declarada por Calímaco, observando que a suposta diferença entre a literatura preferida pelo público e a literatura preferida pela crítica depende de dois fatores distintos. O primeiro é o simples fato de a crítica ler profissionalmente e o público ler por prazer. O segundo está relacionado à distinção entre recepção e uso da literatura proposta por C.S. Lewis. Na recepção, a obra tende a ser admirada por si; no uso, tende a ser instrumentalizada como suporte para um devaneio em que os desejos do próprio leitor são vicariamente satisfeitos. Observamos que essa devaneio, que Lewis chama de construção egoísta de castelos, e que inclui uma variante mórbida, tem um paralelo na noção girardiana do duplo angélico. Contudo, o devaneio depende da simpatia como definida por Adam Smith, a qual por sua vez depende de certa aprovação moral. Investigamos portanto o tipo de personagem que conquista a aprovação moral do leitor, contrastando os heróis homéricos com os cavaleiros cristãos a fim de verificar como o cristianismo dirige a aprovação moral para as vítimas, fazendo com que os heróis da ficção sejam pessoas perseguidas ou marginalizadas. / In this dissertation we investigate how fiction involves the reader. Starting Callimachuss rejection of Homer, we note that the supposed diference between the literature favoured by the public at large and the literature preferred by critics is actually twofold. First, critics read for business and the public reads for pleasure. Second, as proposed by C.S. Lewis, there is a distinction between the reception and use of literature. In reception, a work tends to be admired in itself, whereas in use it becomes a mere support for a sort of daydreaming in which the readers own desires are vicariously satisfied. We discuss this daydreaming called egotistic castle-building by Lewis, highlighting its morbid variant, which finds a parallel in the Girardian notion of the angelic double, developed from a reading of Proust. Now, as egotistic castle-building in its turn depends on sympathy as defined by Adam Smith, a concept which includes moral approval, we investigate the types of characters who obtain the moral approval of readers, contrasting the warriors from Homers poems with Christian knights in order to show that Christianity directs moral approval towards the victims. In a Christian society, fictional heroes must be people who are persecuted or at least marginalised.

Since the publication of the book The Screwtape Letters in 1942, ‘C. S. Lewis’ has been a widely recognized name in both Britain and the United States. The significance of the writings of this scholar of medieval literature, Christian apologist and author of the children’s books The Chronicles of Narnia, while widely recognized, has not previously been investigated. Using a wide range of sources, including archival material, book reviews, monographs, articles and interviews, this dissertation examines the reception of Lewis in Britain and America, comparatively, from within his lifetime until the recent past. To do so, the methodology borrows from the history of the book and history of reading fields, and writes the biography of Lewis’s Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia. By contextualizing the writing of these works in the 1940s and 1950s, the evolution of Lewis’s respective platforms in Britain and America and these works’ reception across the twentieth century, this project contributes to the growing body of work that interrogates the print culture of Christianity. Extensive secondary reading, moreover, permitted the investigation of cultural, intellectual, social and religious factors informing Lewis’s reception, the existence of Lewis devotees in America and the lives of Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia in particular. By paying close attention to the historical conditions of authorship, publication and reception, while highlighting similarities and contrasts between Britain and America, this dissertation provides a robust account of how and why Lewis became one of the most successful Christian authors of the twentieth century.

This work describes a special kind of story about the journey there and back again or journey to gain experience. The nature of this narrative is given by the presence of several key points: the existence of primary and secondary world, wandering throughout secondary world, the transformation of a hero and a reader, homecoming. Presented definition of the story is the starting point from which are being searched connections with the professional disciplines of social work and ethics. In social work the diagram of these trips back and forth presents acquiring an expertise in various scientific fields. For plane of ethics it is particularly significant credibility of the moment from this journey back and forth when the story of the hero and the reader becomes a good (or bad) story positive or negative.