C. S. Lewis’s THE GREAT DIVORCE—The Misunderstood Dynamics between the Self and the Other

Main Article Content

Raluca Ștefania Pelin

Abstract

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (NIV, Mark 12.31) and ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6.31) are the key commandments from the Bible and the drive of an emotionally intelligent existence. The inability of humans to abide by them creates a chasm between the Self and the Other. The Self defines and actualizes itself only in relation to Another. However, a great divorce ensues when the will, the ethical precepts, and the actions of humans fail to be responsibly exercised for the benefit of one’s own Self and that of the Other. C. S. Lewis’s fantasy The Great Divorce sheds light on the way the Self emerges as a consequence of making choices. The focus of this article is therefore on the reception of Lewis’s book from the perspective of emotional intelligence, of Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another and Martin Buber’s I and Thou, also resorting to concepts from Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy and J. L. Austin’s speech acts since in any relationship the Self is faced with Another and can only understand oneself and create meaning by accurately perceiving the Others and communicating with them.

Article Details

How to Cite
Pelin, R. Ștefania. “C. S. Lewis’s THE GREAT DIVORCE—The Misunderstood Dynamics Between the Self and the Other”. Linguaculture, vol. 15, no. 1, June 2024, pp. 106-20, doi:10.47743/lincu-2024-1-0352.
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Articles
Author Biography

Raluca Ștefania Pelin, Iași University of Life Sciences, Romania

Raluca Ștefania PELIN is an assistant lecturer at “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iași University of Life Sciences, where she teaches English for Specific Purposes. The main focus of her research is the integration of concepts related to emotional intelligence and emotional literacy skills into the study of literary and non-literary texts. Her interest in observing the way in which patterns of emotional intelligence are intrinsic to literary works has materialized in the publication of several articles: “The Coral Island vs. Lord of the Flies Variations in Emotional Intelligence Skills”, “C. S. Lewis's Narnia and J. R. R. Tolkien's Middleearth: Realms of Emotionally Intelligent Characters”, “Emotions and Emotional Intelligence Beyond Words in the Poetry of Rose Ausländer, Selma-Meerbaum Eisinger, Paul Celan, and Dan Pagis”, etc.

References

The New International Version Bible. https://www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 23 October 2023.

Austin, John Langshaw. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Buber, Martin. I and Thou. Edinburgh: T. & T. Claark, Hesperides Press, 2008.

Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning. The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust. London: Rider, 2004.

Lewis, C. S. The C. S. Lewis Signature Classics. New York: HarperOne. An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2017.

Ricoeur, Paul. Oneself As Another. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.