LE3 .A278 2012

2012

Cunningham, Richard

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

English

English & Theatre Studies

Critics such as Kath Filmer-Davies and Lauren Shohet have denigrated C. S. Lewis’s novels as unimaginative and uncritical reproductions of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. This thesis is a case study in Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, Perelandra, and The Magician’s Nephew that counters Filmer-Davies’ and Shohet’s claims, instead arguing that Lewis’s engagement with Paradise Lost by way of novel-writing is consistently innovative, well-researched, and critically as well as theologically rigorous. The first chapter argues that Lewis formulates the unique voice of Screwtape as a critique of Milton’s Satan. The second demonstrates that the cosmic scope of Perelandra provides Lewis with an outlet for his thoughts on Milton’s depiction of God. The final chapter suggests that the form and imagery of The Magician’s Nephew is such that young readers will be prepared to delight in Milton’s poem later in life.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:236