C. S. Lewis's View of Myth, Fantasy, and Nostalgic National Restoration in Till We Have Faces

This paper examines C. S. Lewis's view of myth and religion in the mid-twentieth century England. Lewis provided his social and cultural criticisms for materialistic contemporary culture and a decline in religiosity in Till We Have Faces (1956). Under the agitated influence of the time period and social movements in which he had lived, Lewis's writing uncovers dynamic interactions with the traumatized world aroused by two World Wars and the apocalyptic aura of an upcoming new world. The narrative of Lewis's novel Till We Have Faces, in a larger perspective, presents the mixtures of mythic motifs and nostalgia. On the plot basis, the novel depicts contemporary spiritual blindness and national dissociations. Many criticisms of Lewis have not been exploring the author's keen knowledge of the modern society because of his conspicuous depictions of evil and grace involving religious and medievalist views. Nonetheless, the paper explores how Lewis's apocalyptical views, related to turmoil and nostalgia, uncover complexities of his religious dilemmas between restoring the deteriorated status of the privileged. Ultimately, it analyzes Lewis's consciousness of the social changes related to the larger, more often than not psychological, context of redefining the national empire.