C.S. Lewis and Christian Postmodernism: Word, Image, and Beyond
Ebook
Overview
Employing a postmodernist literary approach, this book identifies C. S. Lewis both as an antimodernist and as a Christian postmodernist who tells the story of the gospel to twentieth- and twenty-first-century readers. Lewis is popularly known as an able Christian apologetic writer, talented in explaining Christian beliefs in simple, logical terms. But his fictional works feature expressions that erect ambiguous borders between nonfiction and fiction, an approach equivalent to those typical in postmodernist literature. Whereas postmodernist literature is full of many small micronarratives that deconstruct the Great Story, Lewis’s fictional world is the reverse of this: in his world, multiple and small stories are chosen, but they also ultimately express the Story that transcends human understanding. Lewis’s approach reflects both his opposition to modernist philosophy, which embraces solidified interpretation, and his criticism of modernized Christianity. Lewis’s fictional works focus on the history of interpretation and, deconstructing interpretations of the previous age, seek a new model for interpretation. Both C. S. Lewis and postmodern writers force us to choose between alternative interpretations.
”Christian Postmodernism, as Kyoko Yuasa coins the relationship
between C. S. Lewis’s stories and religion, is an idea that
scholars have known through intuition but were not able to express
in such a simple and appropriate way. This new literary term is
convincingly demonstrated in this book and should also be
inspirational for many to explore the genre that plays with
Christianity and literature of the postmodern age."
--Eijun Senaha, Professor of English, Hokkaido University,
Japan
“Kyoko Yuasa offers a fresh perspective for the twenty-first
century on the works of C. S. Lewis. Her study of Lewis the
anti-modernist ranges across the breadth of his writings and is
both passionate and scholarly. I found her thorough explication of
That Hideous Strength, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and
Till We Have Faces illuminating as she reveals their depth
and richness by probing their roots in pre-Enlightenment
literature."
--Joy Alexander, School of Education, Queen’s University,
Belfast
"Kyoko Yuasa provides a scholarly overview of C. S. Lewis’s works,
showing how he goes against the grain of modernism and
rehabilitates values it has discarded. Based on her wide reading,
and a detailed analysis of three of his novels, her argument that
C. S. Lewis exemplifies a kind of Christian postmodernism will be
very helpful in challenging readers to reconsider Lewis in the
context of modern thought and culture."
--John Gillespie, Professor of French Language and Literature
(Emeritus), School of Modern Languages, Arts and Humanities
Research Institute, Ulster University
"Dr. Yuasa argues that Lewis was a Christian--not a
radical--postmodernist. The adjectives make all the difference. You
will emerge from this study with a deeper understanding of
modernism, postmodernism, Lewis, and Jesus, the Christ. I am
delighted that this young Christian Japanese scholar has both the
perspective and the boldness to show us Lewis in a new
light."
--Gayne John Anacker, Professor of Philosophy, Dean of the College
of Arts and Sciences, California Baptist University; Vice President
for Academic Affairs, C. S. Lewis Foundation
Product Details
- Title : C.S. Lewis and Christian Postmodernism: Word, Image, and Beyond
- Authors:
- Yuasa, Kyoko
- Edwards, Bruce
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Publication Date: 2016
- ISBN: 9781498219396
Kyoko Yuasa is Lecturer of English Literature at Fuji Women's University and Hokkaido Musashi Women's College. She is the Japanese translator of Bruce L. Edwards's A Rhetoric of Reading: C. S. Lewis's Defense of Western Literacy (2007).