Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate
Abstract
This essay chronicles significant responses to C. S. Lewis’s A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942) that occurred from the 1960s into the twenty-first century. Important responses include those of William Empson, Stanley Fish, Stuart Curran, John Rumrich, Peter C. Herman, Michael Bryson, and Joseph Wittreich. All of these scholars challenged Lewis on various points—most commonly concerning matters of Lewis’s analysis of Milton’s Satan, his alleged oversimplification of Milton’s theologically complex epic, the supposed similarities between A Preface and Fish’s Surprised by Sin, and his assumed hegemonic prevention of new avenues of critical inquiry into Milton’s epic. This essay contends that certain of these critics have misread or misinterpreted Lewis, and it suggests that such portrayals of A Preface obfuscate the insights that it continues to offer readers of Paradise Lost.
First Page
67
Last Page
98
DOI
10.25623/conn030-urban-1
Publication Date
12-9-2021
Recommended Citation
Urban, David V., "C. S. Lewis and His Later Respondents: Letting in Fresh Air, Preventing Questions, and Reimagining A Preface to Paradise Lost" (2021). University Faculty Publications and Creative Works. 628.
https://digitalcommons.calvin.edu/calvin_facultypubs/628
Included in
Christianity Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons