C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages I: Lewis and the Medieval Consolation Tradition

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Center for the Study of C. S. Lewis and Friends, Taylor Univ.

Organizer Name

Joe Ricke

Organizer Affiliation

Taylor Univ.

Presider Name

Grace Tiffany

Presider Affiliation

Western Michigan Univ.

Paper Title 1

The Consolations of Aslan: Boethian Visions in Chronicles of Narnia

Presenter 1 Name

Edwin Woodruff Tait

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Independent Scholar

Paper Title 2

"I wolde be there / Byyonde the water": Streams, Maidens, Lions, and Consolation in Pearl and The Silver Chair

Presenter 2 Name

Tiffany E. Schubert

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Wyoming Catholic College

Paper Title 3

"Sweat is better than philosophy": Consolation Resisted and Received in Till We Have Faces

Presenter 3 Name

Louis Swingrover

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Gonzaga Univ.

Paper Title 4

A Grief Observed and the Pleasures of Self Consolation

Presenter 4 Name

Joe Ricke

Start Date

10-5-2019 1:30 PM

Session Location

Valley 3 Eldridge 309

Description

This session of papers considers the influence on C. S. Lewis of the medieval consolation tradition as expressed by Boethius and worked out in numerous other works such as the anonymous alliterative poem, Pearl. From Narnia to Lewis's final novel, Till We Have Faces, to his masterpiece of grieving which seems to resist or rewrite the consolation tradition, the philosophical/literary tradition of divine intervention to "console" intolerable human grief, can be seen to play a major role in Lewis's imagination. Joe M. Ricke