The Great Divorce: A Dream by C.S. Lewis: A Comeback of the Medieval Genre

It is universally acknowledged that the Renaissance has exerted a great influence on modern literature and art. This view has been so overwhelming that it has ousted other possibilities, as a result, the influence of medieval literature has been grossly underestimated. In the current article I want to show the role of the “dream vision” genre in shaping the modern genre of spiritual philosophical fiction elaborated in the works by C.S. Lewis, specifically in his exceptionally original novel The Great Divorce. The aim is to examine systematically and expose the intrinsic affinity of Lewis’ work with the ground breaking works of the father of the genre, a French Cistercian monk Guillaume de Deguileville (1295-1358). Separated by time and culture, the works display a remarkable congruity of both form and content including the narrative structure, themes and motifs, allegorical representations and symbolism. The discovered similarities are not accidental because they draw upon the same epistemological position concerning understanding and interpretation of essential properties of the Christian doctrine. Keywords: dream vision, pilgrimage, cardinal sins, comparative analysis