C. S. Lewis fantasy novelist literary scholar and Christian apologist is one of the most
original and well-known literary figures of the twentieth century. As one who stood at the
crossroads of Edwardian and modern thinking he is often read as a sexist or even misogynistic
man of his time but this fresh rereading assesses Lewis as a prescient thinker who transformed
typical Western gender paradigms. The Feminine Ethos in C. S. Lewis's 'Chronicles of Narnia'
proposes that Lewis's highly nuanced metaphorical view of gender relations has been
misunderstood precisely because it challenges Western chauvinist assumptions on sex and gender.
Instead of perpetuating sexism Lewis subverts the culturally inherited chauvinism of
«masculine» classical heroism with the biblically inspired vision of a surprisingly «feminine»
spiritual heroism. His view that we are all «feminine» in relation to the «masculine» God - a
theological feminism that crosses gender lines - means that qualities we tend to consider to be
feminine such as humility are the qualities essential to being fully human. This book's
theoretical framework is Lewis's own grounded in his view of biblical thinking as he was
informed by writers such as Milton Wordsworth and George MacDonald and in terms of the
uniquely progressive implications for twentieth-first century cultural studies. This highly
insightful and entertaining study of theological feminism in Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia will
be compelling for anyone interested in children's and fantasy literature Inklings scholarship
gender discourse ethical and spiritual discourse literature and theology and cultural
studies in general.
