<p>This dissertation is a critical examination of the fictional works of G.S. Lewis, focussing upon the concepts of reality, truth and perspective as they are expressed in the fiction. The discussion follows the narrative of each work in turn, thus orienting the reader by means of the works themselves, rather than by means of rubrics concerning their subjects or themes. The intent is to follow Lewis's precept, that the good reader should attend to any work of literature as something made as well as something said. The introduction surveys the development of Lewis's thought on the nature of reality and truth, and of the role of the imagination and the reason in apprehending these things. Evidence from Lewis's letters (including unpublished letters), essays, apologetics, addresses and autobiography is considered. A survey of the major criticism of Lewis's fiction is included in the introduction. A chapter of analytical discussion is then devoted to each of the books of the Ransom trilogy, to the Chronicles of Narnia as a series, and to Till We Rave Faces. </p> <p> Lewis came to believe in the existence of an ultimate, central Reality in the person of God, ln whom all lesser realities focus, and from whom they depend. He believed also in man's ability to perceive truth -- valid asssrtions concerning these realities -through the exercise of the reason, and adherence to the moral law. Mythopoeic and symbolic literature had, in Lewis's estimation, the unique ability to convey reality whole into the mind of the receptive reader. The concentration of this kind of literature upon unusual and unexpected subjects, he believed, could serve to correct the reader's perspective upon reality, by furnishing the imagination with those materials which the implicit materialism and naturalism of much of modern "realistic" literature might have kept from the reader's consideration. Lewis's own fantasies -- a science-fiction trilogy, seven fairy-tales, and a novel based on the old myth of Cupid and Psyche -- are unified by their preoccupation with the importance of an undistorted perspective upon reality, the possibility of perceiving truth, and of distinguishing truth from error, of the dependence of all reality upon an ultimate, central Reality, and of the possibility of knowing that Reality by entering into a personal relationship with God. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/15634 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Loney, John Douglas |
| Contributors | Morton, Richard E., English |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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