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Emotion, language, and heroism in C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy

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Date Issued:
2004
Summary:
C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy presents a hero in the person of philologist Dr. Elwin Ransom. Lewis's presentation exhibits a purposeful and precise use of language that describes experience and characterizes emotional authenticity. This use of language becomes particularly interesting when examined in light of the theories of Owen Barfield, who along with Lewis recognizes that myth is significant as an expression of language and its relation to the human condition, and Joseph Campbell, who discusses the journey of the hero. In his own writings Lewis contends that there has been a process of working against the "mythical imagination," moving the hero away from the concrete and toward the abstract. Lewis works to reverse this process by presenting a modern hero who demonstrates an awareness of "old" conventions of language, emotion, and expression in which archaic and mythic concepts are available, where understanding need not be abstract to be acceptable.
Title: Emotion, language, and heroism in C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.
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Name(s): Leger, Heather Marie.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Martin, Thomas L., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2004
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 59 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy presents a hero in the person of philologist Dr. Elwin Ransom. Lewis's presentation exhibits a purposeful and precise use of language that describes experience and characterizes emotional authenticity. This use of language becomes particularly interesting when examined in light of the theories of Owen Barfield, who along with Lewis recognizes that myth is significant as an expression of language and its relation to the human condition, and Joseph Campbell, who discusses the journey of the hero. In his own writings Lewis contends that there has been a process of working against the "mythical imagination," moving the hero away from the concrete and toward the abstract. Lewis works to reverse this process by presenting a modern hero who demonstrates an awareness of "old" conventions of language, emotion, and expression in which archaic and mythic concepts are available, where understanding need not be abstract to be acceptable.
Identifier: 9780496082704 (isbn), 13180 (digitool), FADT13180 (IID), fau:10039 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2004.
Subject(s): Lewis, CS--(Clive Staples),--1898-1963
Ransom, Elwin (Fictitious character)
Lewis, CS--(Clive Staples),--1898-1963--Fictional works
Mythology in literature
English language--Rhetoric
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13180
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.