The Spatialization of London’s East End and Irishness in C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia

Abstract

The mythic aspects in C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia have mainly attracted critics to discuss Lewis’s view of theology. Nevertheless, his birth origin of Anglican Irish seems to complicate the sense of masculinity and nobleness in Narnia in relation to Englishness and gender. Hitherto, many critics have asserted that whiteness in Narnia reinforces the lost power of Christianity in England. Yet Englishness in Narnia still calls into question many cultural reflections of nationhood, class, and gender. More specifically, in this paper I explore a gendered notion of Irishness and veiled references to the excluded locality of London’s East End in The Chronicles of Narnia. Social mobility of the urban poor and neglected female positions are related to the historical site of the East End and occupational changes among Irish women during the World Wars. Thus, Lewis’s background of Northern Ireland unveils his backward or nostalgic portrayals of a utopian world in Narnia. I suggest that otherness and ambivalent Englishness should further display the long history of exclusion of Irish people and the evolving values of class and gender in English society in Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.