C. S. Lewis's Perelandra , livre ebook
179
pages
English
Ebooks
2013
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179
pages
English
Ebooks
2013
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
01 octobre 2013
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781612777191
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
3 Mo
The first single-volume study of an important Lewis novel C. S. Lewis considered his novel Perelandra (1943) among his best works. A triumph of imaginative science fiction, Perelandra-the second volume of Lewis's "Space Trilogy"-is also theologically ambitious. C. S. Lewis's Perelandra: Reshaping the Image of the Cosmos explores how the novel synthesizes the three traditions of cosmology, mythology, and Christianity. The first group of essays considers the cosmological implications of the world Lewis depicts in Perelandra while the second group examines the relationship between morality and meaning in Lewis's created cosmology of the planet Perelandra.This work brings together a world-class group of literary and theological scholars and Lewis specialists that includes Paul S. Fiddes, Monika B. Hilder, Sanford Schwartz, Michael Travers, and Michael Ward. The collection is enhanced by Walter Hooper's reminiscences of his conversations with Lewis about Perelandra and the possible provenance of the stories in Lewis's imagination.C. S. Lewis scholars and devoted readers alike will find this volume indispensible to the understanding of this canonical work of speculative fiction.
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Publié par
Date de parution
01 octobre 2013
EAN13
9781612777191
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
3 Mo
C. S. Lewis’sPerelandra
C. S. Lewis’sPerelandra
Reshaping the Image of the Cosmos
Edited by J W andB W
T K S U P Kent, Ohio
© by he Kent State University Press All rigts reserved Library of Congress Catalog Number ---- Manufactured in te United States of America
A version of “Perelandrain Its Own Time: A Modern View of te Space Trilogy,” by Sanford Scwartz, originally appeared as “Wy Wells Is from Mars, Bergson from Venus: Mapping Evolution in teSpace Trilogy” inC. S. Lewis: Views from Wake For-est, edited by Micael Travers (© Zossima Press, ).
A version of “Voyage to Venus: Lewis’s Imaginative Pat toPerelandra,” by Micael Ward, was originally publised as part of capter (“Venus”) inPlanet Narnia: e Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis,by Micael Ward (), and appears ere by permission of Oxford University Press, USA.
L C C--P D C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra : resaping te image of te cosmos / edited by Judit Wolfe and Brendan Wolfe. pages cm ---- (ardcover) ∞ . a Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), –. Perelandra. I. Wolfe, J. E. (Judit Elisabet), – editor of compilation. II. Wolfe, B. N. (Brendan N.) editor of compilation. PR.EP '—dc
Contents
Introduction: he Scope and Vision of his Study Abbreviations for Works by C. S. Lewis C. S. Lewis and te Antropological Approac
THE PERELANDRAN COSMOS Voyage to Venus: Lewis’s Imaginative Pat toPerelandra “For te Dance All hings Were Made”: he Great Dance in C. S. Lewis’sPerelandra . Perelandrain Its Own Time: A Modern View of te Space Trilogy Surprised by te Feminine: A Rereading of Gender Discourse in C. S. Lewis’sPerelandra . he Center and te Rim: Inversions of te System of te Heavens inPerelandraande Discarded Image
MORALITY AND MEANING INPERELANDRA Perelandran Diction: A Study in Meaning Myt, Pluralism, and Coice:Perelandraand Lewis on Religious Trut Frigtful Freedom:Perelandraas Imaginative heodicy .
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vi
Free to Fall: he Moral Ground of Events on Perelandra
List of Contributors Index
Introduction
e Scope and Vision of is Study
Perelandrais unparalleled among C. S. Lewis’s works in te audacity and grandeur of its conception. his collection of essays brings togeter a world-class group of literary, teological, and Lewisian scolars to examine te scope of tis conception and work out some of its practical implications. Lewis is a scolar wose originality is indivisible from is commit-ment to tradition, bot Cristian and literary; is work is te flower of an imagination inseminated by ancient trut. OfPerelandra,Lewis said tat it ad all begun wit a “mental picture of te floating islands. he wole of te rest of my labours in a sense consisted of building up a world in wic floating islands could exist.”¹ Wat kind of world tis would be was overdetermined from witin a diverse range of sources: literary, religious, istorical, and scientific. hat it sould be Venus was suggested by a curi-ous convergence: te scientific belief, in Lewis’s time, tat te surface of te planet Venus was liquid, and te classical imagination of te goddess Venus as Aprodite Anaduomenê, te goddess rising out of te sea. hat tis newborn world of Venusian beauty sould be a version of te Judeo-Cristian paradise was suggested by bot literary and religious istory. In literary terms, te bordered isles were natural versions of te enclosed pleasure gardens of Elizabetan life and literature, temselves conscious imitations of teparadise—literally “enclosed garden”—of Ancient Near Eastern myt. And tis inescapably brougt wit it te religious idea of a new Eden—a world not (yet) fallen into sin. Once all tese associations were given sape, “of course te story about an averted fall developed. his
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is because, as you know, aving got your people to tis exciting country, someting must appen.”² his trowaway remark already suggests tat te spiritual dimension of Lewis’s book accrued to te cosmological one not in a forced or arbitrary way but naturally. In fact, Lewis tougt tat science fiction in general couldn’t function witout a spiritual dimension: “No merely pysical strangeness or merely spatial distance will realize tat idea ofotherness wic is wat we are always trying to grasp in a story about voyaging troug space: you must go into anoter dimension. To construct plausible and moving ‘oter worlds’ you must draw on te only real ‘oter world’ we know, tat of spirit.”³ InPerelandra,te two are indistinguisable. he Cambridge pilologist Elwin Ransom is carried by angelic powers to Venus (or, in te Old Solar tongue, Perelandra), a young planet covered by a golden sea on te surface of wic luxuriantly verdant floating islands glide in and out of touc, overlooked by only one mass of mountainous fixed land. A first man and a first woman, majestic but also cildlike, spend teir days moving freely from island to island—at once te “noble savages” of Romantic literature and te Adam and Eve of Milton’sParadise Lost.he convergence of primitive innocence and Edenic majesty is particularly clear in an early verse draft:
he floating islands, te flat golden sky At noon, te peacock sunset: tepid waves Wit te land sliding over tem like a skin: he alien Eve, green-bodied, stepping fort To meet my ero from er forest ome, Proud, courteous, unafraid; no tougt infirm Alters er ceek—⁴
Unbeknownst to Ransom, owever, te astropysicist Weston as also traveled to Perelandra, in te service of a vision of emergent evolution and space colonization. Allowing imself to be possessed by te blind Force tat e believes moves te universe, Weston divests imself of is umanity and becomes a medium of evil, an evil wit te monomania-cal aim of tempting te Lady into transgressing te one commandment of er Creator: never to sleep on te Fixed Land. Feeling frustrated and paralyzed by tis onslaugt, Ransom asks ow God can allow tis, only to
introduction
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realize tat e imself as been sent to avert tis second fall. First troug argument and finally troug pysical battle, Ransom tries to overcome te tempter, wose deat in te subterranean caverns of te Fixed Land releases te new umanity from temptation and users in te coronation of te Green Lady and er King as rulers of Perelandra, supplanting te tutelary deity of te spere, Venus.
Wat is remarkable in tis retelling of Genesis – is tat te seminal image of Lewis’s oter world—te floating islands of Venus—does not give way (like an incidental backdrop) to te increasingly focal religious story of an averted fall but is allowed to inflect Lewis’s entire rendering of tat story. his commitment bot to an originary image and to te disparate sets of traditions tat accrue to it—modern and medieval cosmology, classical mytology, and Cristianity—propels Lewis to retink bot te contents and te functions of all four traditions. Not content wit teir coexistence in is novel, e creates a framework for is story tat syntesizes te traditions of cosmology, mytology, and Cristianity, all te wile subtly reimagining eac. he first part of tis book is concerned wit tat reconfiguration. Walter Hooper sets te stage wit an intimate and lively account of te genesis of te Ransom Trilogy. In “C. S. Lewis and te Antropological Approac,” e recounts is first discussions aboutPerelandrawit Lewis, empasizing Lewis’s understanding of te way “sources” function in te book. Sources, insists Lewis, are a springboard for, not te defining pa-rameter of, an autor’s imagination: To readPerelandrasolely troug te lens of one particular set of sources is to import (now outdated) antropological metods into literary study, and to distort te object of enquiry from te start. Micael Ward complements Hooper’s biograpical account wit a conceptual one. In is programmatic essay, “Voyage to Venus: Lewis’s Imaginative Pat to Perelandra,” Ward presents Lewis’s tougt about te planet Venus as it is developed in is academic work, is poetry, and even is apologetics, and discusses te influence of tat oeuvre on te creation ofPerelandra.Ward concludes tatPerelandra,as a story about te planet of love, is best described by te termplenitude. he idea of plenitude is not only imaginatively but also teologically important, for, teologically, Lewis’s book presents our own modern view of te cosmos as merely a sadowy image of te Perelandran, distorted
