Publication Date

Summer 2009

Type of Culminating Activity

Thesis

Degree Title

Master of Arts in English, Literature

Department

English

Supervisory Committee Chair

Linda Marie Zaerr

Abstract

“Everything in the whole story should arise from the whole cast of the author’s mind. We must write for children out of those elements in our own imagination which we share with children: differing from our child readers not by any less, or less serious, interest in the things we handle, but by the fact that we have other interests which children would not share with us. The matter of our story should be a part of the habitual furniture of our minds.” —C.S. Lewis, “On Three Ways of Writing for Children”

The year 2010 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s classic children’s story The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The years following its publication in 1950 would see the completion of six more stories about the fantastic world of Narnia and the British children who visit there. Decades after his death, Lewis’s children’s fiction continues to interest readers and attract a large audience. The Narnia series has been published in over forty-one languages, sold over 100,000,000 copies, and been made into stage adaptations, sound recordings, and television programs. Lewis’s influence can be seen in the works of contemporary children’s writers, including Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (Ezard, Hilliard). Time Magazine ranked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe high on their list of the best English-language novels published since 1923 (Kelly), and Disney’s 2005 release of a film based on the book grossed over a billion dollars worldwide (the-numbers.com).

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