Tag Archives: An Experiment in Criticism

An Essential Reading List from C.S. Lewis: An Experiment on An Experiment in Criticism (Throwback Thursday)

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

At A Pilgrim in Narnia we have an occasional feature called “Throwback Thursday.” This is where I find a blog post from the past–raiding either my own blog-hoard or someone else’s–and throw it back out into the digital world. … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links, Original Research, Throwback Thursdays | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, books, C.S. Lewis, canon, Deconstructionism, George R.R. Martin, literary criticism, literary history, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, Narnia, Reader Response Criticism, Reading, Sherlock Holmes, The Western Canon, writing | 26 Comments

“C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: Friendship, True Myth, And Platonism,” a Paper by Justin Keena

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

There is doubtless a significant amount of interest in the friendship of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis–both in the more formal setting of the Inklings and in their own literary and personal paths. I’ve written here and here about how … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, friendship, J.R.R. Tolkien, myth, Oxford, The Silmarillion, Walter Hooper | 14 Comments

8 Questions about the Problem of Susan Narnia Debate, or How to Read Well

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Kat Coffin’s brief article last week on “The Problem of Susan” is the hottest post of 2019. “How do you Solve a Problem like Susan Pevensie?” has been discussed in the blog comments and in various forums, sometimes with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Preface to Paradise Lost, An Experiment in Criticism, Gender Theory, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mere Christianity, Michael Ward, Narnia, Reading, sexism, That Hideous Strength, The Last Battle, The Personal Heresy, The Problem of Susan, The Screwtape Letters, The Silver Chair, Till We Have Faces, Virginia Woolf | 52 Comments

Turn Off CNN and Talk to Actual Americans: On Division in the United? States of America

Posted on August 14, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

Are you ready for a shock? As I sat down to write this, CNN had on the front page of its website an article putting Donald Trump in a dim light. Hard to believe, I know. And–are you ready for … Continue reading →

Posted in Thoughtful Essays | Tagged America, American politics, American President, An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, CNN, Donald Trump, Fox, Fox News, Glenn Beck, media, Stephen Colbert, Surprised by Joy, Theology of Culture, Trump | 63 Comments

C.S. Lewis’ Teenage Bookshelf, and Other Lessons on Reading

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

The Beowulf author, Sir Thomas Malory, Jane Austen, William Morris, Charlotte Brontë, and Shakespeare. With the exception of Morris, who is merely an important author of his period, these are all canonical authors. Notably, though, these are all authors that Lewis … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Letters, On Writing, Original Research | Tagged A Preface to Paradise Lost, An Experiment in Criticism, books, C.S. Lewis, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, literature, Malory, Reader Response Criticism, Reading, Shakespeare, Studies in Words, The Discarded Image, William Morris | 47 Comments

A Narnian Close Read: Friday Feature

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

A resource recently came to me from a homeschool mom. I am honestly not very connected to that kind of network, so I was pleased to bump into the “Close Reads Podcast,” hosted at the Circe Institute. Past books featured … Continue reading →

Posted in Feature Friday | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, canon, Feature Friday, Flannery O'Connor, Jane Austen, lion the witch and the wardrobe, podcast, Pride and Prejudice, Reading, The Western Canon, The Wind in the Willows | Leave a comment

George Watson’s Provocative Comments on C.S. Lewis as Literary Critic

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

One of the advantages of finding new libraries is that the librarian’s skill of book-buying is more art than science. The librarians I know, despite their adept use of analytics, have as much curator or architect in them as they … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, Douglas Adams, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, F.R. Leavis, g k chesterton, George Watson, Inklings, Jacques Derrida, Joy Davidman, librarians, literary criticism, myth, Narnia, Postmodernism, Reader Response Criticism, Reading, Roland Barthes, Samuel Johnson, Sherlock Holmes, Socratic Club, Studies in Words, The Allegory of Love, The Discarded Image, The Personal Heresy, Till We Have Faces, William Empson | 22 Comments

Spiritual Dynamics in The OA

Posted on February 16, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

One of the hottest new shows on Netflix is The OA. A genre-bending serial of 8 rough-hewn episodes, it has the transdimensional framework and Scoobie gang dynamics of Stranger Things, but a much more adult narrative. While Stranger Things uses … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reviews | Tagged An Experiment in Criticism, apologetics, Brit Marling, Buddhism, cruciformity, Doctor Strange, Empire Records, fantasy, Fictional Universes, Netflix, Paschal Mystery, pop culture, Reality Bites, self-death, Story Within a Story, Stranger Things, surrender, The OA | Leave a comment

2016: A Year of Reading

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

This time last year I had a sense of the kind of season that 2016 would be, but I did not know the how deeply the experiences of bereavement, family responsibility, and overwork would impact me. While my work has … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links | Tagged academic, An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis, feminism, George MacDonald, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories, PhD Research, Ransom Trilogy, Reading, The Quest of Bleheris, William Morris | 15 Comments

2016: My Year in Books: The Infographic

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

The house elves at Goodreads have produced a little infographic to capture my year in book reading. I love data, and I love when clever people create clever algorithms to capture trends in visual form. I’ll post my full, super … Continue reading →