Description

• Title:
  The Discourse of Orientalism in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia
• Creator:
  Wicher, Andrzej
• Contributor:
  Kazik, Joanna;
  Mirowska, Paulina;
  University of Łódź;
  Andrzej Wicher is a lecturer in the history of English literature and theory of literature in the Institute of English Studies, University of Łódź, Poland. He is a member of the International Shakespeare Association, PASE and the Scientific Society in Łódź. His professional interests include medieval and Renaissance studies, cultural studies, and modern fantasy literature, with a special emphasis on the presence of folktale motifs in works of literature. Professor Wicher is the author of Archaeology of the Sublime. Studies in Late – Medieval English Writings (Katowice, 1995) and Shakespeare’s Parting Wondertales – a Study of the Elements of the Tale of Magic in William Shakespeare’s Late Plays (Łódź, 2003). He also published a volume of Polish translations of Middle English literary works, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl.
• Description:
  It has been stated, on the basis of certain motifs in The Chronicles of Narnia, that “like many Englishmen of his era, Lewis was unconsciously but regrettably unsympathetic to things and people Middle Eastern” (Ford 363). My task in this article would be to examine the nature of this prejudice because I generally agree that we can legitimately talk about C. S. Lewis’s prejudice against Oriental cultures. The crucial problem seems to be whether this prejudice was so serious and so strong that it should in turn prejudice us, not only perhaps against what Lewis had to say about the Oriental cultures, but maybe even against this author himself. Naturally, Lewis’s “anti-Orientalism” is hardly subversive in relation to his own cultural background, but it would be hard to deny that it is subversive in relation to the currently dominant discourse of multiculturalism. The material for the discussion is provided, for the most part, by the thread of Calormen, a fantastic country (appearing only occasionally in The Chronicles of Narnia, mainly in The Horse and His Boy) that shares many characteristics with a certain stereotypical conception of the Oriental civilization. But also some other books by C. S. Lewis, notably his essays, are taken into account. Some reference is also made to the famous book by Edward Said, Orientalism.;
  Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00.
• Object availability:
  free access
• Rights:
  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Międzynarodowe;
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
• Date:
  2019.06.10;
  2013
• Type:
  Book chapter
• Language:
  English;
  eng
• Format:
  application/pdf;
  image/jpeg
• Publisher:
  Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Relation:
  Kazik J., Mirowska P. (red.), Studies in English Drama and Poetry vol. 3. Reading subversion and transgression, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2013;;
  Studies in English Drama and Poetry;;
  3
• Subject:
  discourse of orientalism;
  C. S. Lewis;
  Chronicles of Narnia
• Identifier:
  Wicher A., The Discourse of Orientalism in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, [w:] Studies in English Drama and Poetry vol. 3. Reading subversion and transgression, Kazik J., Mirowska P. (red.), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2013, s. 201-215, doi: 10.18778/7525-994-0.17;
  978-83-7525-994-0;
  http://hdl.handle.net/11089/28813 ;
  10.18778/7525-994-0.17
• Data provider:
  Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  text