This January, I will be looking at the religious themes in C.S Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. These two sets of children's literature use fantasy aimed at children to communicate religious and anti-religious ideas. Lewis' series, published between 1950 and 1959 consists of seven novels, all filled with Christian themes and symbols. On the contrary, Phillip Pullman's trilogy, published between 1995-2000, has been viewed as a direct rebuttal to Lewis' series as it uses a very similar subject matter to communicate anti-religious (and specifically anti-Christian) ideas.
For my ISP I will read all ten novels and examine and compare the religious symbols and themes used in them. I will read all the novels in publication order, starting with C. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I hope to address the following questions in my blog posts:
How do both authors use similar fantasy tools, such as talking animals and parallel worlds, to communicate different messages about religion?
Are there any themes or literary devices that are consistent throughout the majority of the novels and between the two authors?
From reading the novels, what do I think the authors hope to accomplish by publishing religious or anti-religious literature for children?
Are there any stories or elements in these novels that are reminiscent of, or parallel to Bible stories or other scripture?
How do the religious or anti-religious themes in the novels affect the moral and overal teachings of the stories?
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