Real and Mythical in the Fantasy Fiction of C.S.Lewis: A Study of C.S.Lewis’s novel The Magician’s Nephew

Abstract

This paper discusses C.S Lewis’s novel The Magician’s Nephew as a narrative of its hero’s struggle to restore peace and balance in the fictional world of Narnia. This paper posits the view that since literature can never be divorced from the society, the fictional world of Narnia, therefore exists as a mythical counterpart of the contemporary world. In a postmodern world where virtues like truth, love, faith, valour, honesty etc. are rapidly dying under the pressure of materialism and increasing commoditization, the resurgence of myth and archetypes in literature serves a novel purpose. C.S Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew, therefore, becomes a fictional mirror of comparative between antiquity and post modernity as its narrative allows the reader to compare the two worlds- the mythical and the real. In mythical Narnia, the hero fights evil with his virtue and valour whereas in today’s postmodern world virtue and value are just the mythical terms and evil is central to the society. The postmodern society has lost its heroic ideals. It is totally de- energized. The narrative of The Magician’s Nephew emanates a fresh energy which serves to heal the postmodern society of its social as well as existential maladies. These arguments of the paper will be developed in the light of the critical works of the critics like Carl Gustav Jung and Northrop Frye.