Ocnos (Nov 2011)
The creative word and poetic visions of the world. The beginnings of an epic fantasy in C. S. Lewis
Abstract
The enormous popularity of the book series The Chronicles of Narnia by British author C. S. Lewis invites the study of the work´s artistic quality that forms part of the beginning of the epic fantasy; not only because it represents a milestone in literary history, but also because it remains an expression of fundamental human needs that, in the same manner, were found in post-war days ofthe twentieth century, as observed in the great questions of postmodernity. The crisis of the greatstories generally expressed by religions and thecultural dissolution of major literary referencesproduce a fertile ground for the emergence ofliterary works, such as The Chronicles of Narnia,and propose a vision of the world and a projectfor the future. In this paper we will analyze theartistic value of The Magician’s Nephew (1955), abook which opens the collection of children’s books,as a work that offers a poetic vision of the worldwith the Judeo-Christian religious background ofcreation.
