Description
Book SynopsisC. 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 Gender Dance: Ironic Subversion in C. S. Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy, the second volume in a triad, 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 which crosses gend
Trade Review«In her careful reading of Lewis and his critics, Hilder provides a nuanced and balanced approach, showing how often Lewis subverted the usual stereotypes, giving us a new understanding of Lewis’s fiction and a new way to think about gender – a viable Third Way.» (David C. Downing, R. W. Schlosser Professor of English at Elizabethtown College, author of
Planets in Peril: A Critical Study of C.S. Lewis’s Ransom Trilogy)
«At long last, a serious study of the Cosmic Trilogy’s central theme, and one which is sufficiently thorough and nuanced to bring out the radical implications of Lewis’s views on gender. Carefully, thoughtfully, insightfully, Hilder moves beyond the Pavlovian superficiality of so many previous ventures into this field. An important and valuable contribution.» (Dr. Michael Ward, St Peter’s College, Oxford, author of
Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis)
