C. S. Lewis on Stories

Abstract

The paper is an exposition and synthesis of C. S. Lewis’s ideas on story as elaborated in his essay “On Stories” in the Charles Williams festschrift (1947). The purpose of Lewis’s essay was to flush out of the underbrush of literature what distinguishes true Story (with a capital letter “S”) from story as mere entertainment. The paper concludes that a key to Lewis’s essay on stories is to be found in his initial vocation as a poet and his ideas about poetic imagination.

Keywords

• the Inklings
• C. S. Lewis
• fantasy stories
• the poetic element
• writing for children