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Abstract

For better and for worse, classic fairy tales have come under severe criticism as paradigms of sexist patriarchy in recent decades. Likewise, C. S. Lewis has been viewed as sexist, even misogynistic. While many fairy tale and Lewis fans might be tempted to dismiss all of these criticisms as nonsense, gender is one of the predominant discourses of our time, our questions and the varied answers are significant, and in this essay I consider how Lewis’ development of the fairy tale genre in The Chronicles of Narnia offers timeless, possibly even surprising, Christian wisdom. How does Lewis portray sex, love, and human identity in these children’s novels? How does he deal with the related “happily ever after” concept? Are his representations of fairy tale motifs in sync with the genre, or do his novels suggest a significant departure? When might Lewis even be in agreement with feminist critics of classic fairy tales? Which aspects of cultural heritage does he affirm and which does he reject? With the sixtieth anniversary of the 1956 publication of The Last Battle, we have another opportunity to reconsider these important questions for the twenty-first century.

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