Description
Book SynopsisC. S. Lewis, fantasy novelist, literary scholar, and Christian apologist, is one of the best-known and most original 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 reading assesses Lewis as a prescient thinker who transformed typical Western gender paradigms.
Surprised by the Feminine: A Rereading of C. S. Lewis and Gender proposes that Lewis's highly nuanced metaphorical view of gender relations has been misunderstood precisely because it challenges Western chauvinist assumptions of 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 ten
Trade Review«Monika B. Hilder’s carefully reasoned treatment of C. S. Lewis and women is the book for which the scholarly world has been waiting. It towers above other writing on the subject by virtue of the thoroughness of its scholarship, the breadth of context into which the question of Lewis and gender is placed, and the superior abundance of close reading of Lewis texts.» (Leland Ryken, Professor of English, Wheaton College)
«In Monika B. Hilder’s ‘Surprised by the Feminine: A Rereading of C. S. Lewis and Gender’ we find a thoughtful, nuanced, scholarly, and penetrating exploration of the increasingly popular discussion of Lewis’s understanding of gender. Hilder’s exciting new contribution to the debate is her argument that Lewis consistently affirms values associated with the feminine. Lewis’s ‘theological feminism’, according to Hilder, elevates spiritual heroism (characterized by imagination, passivity, care, submission, truthfulness, and humility) over the predominant Western notion of classical heroism (characterized by reason, autonomy, activity, aggression, conquest, deceit, and pride). In her study of Lewis’s theological feminism Hilder primarily addresses his fiction, although she does not overlook his non-fiction and poetry. ‘Surprised by the Feminine’ is a major new contribution to Lewis studies.» (Don W. King, Professor of English, Montreat College; Editor, Christian Scholar’s Review)
