Independent Reading...now or later?

Key Details:

• This essay will count as your final grade.
• You will have the last three weeks of this semester to work on it (but you can start early if you like)

 How?

• Choose an independent reading novel from the list below (or get another cleared with me), read and be prepared to discuss it weekly with your class mates, and finally write a one page summary followed by a well developed, 3-5 page essay (MLA format) exploring the meaning gained you’ve gained in this text by applying intertextuality. 

What is Intertextuality?

• Intertextuality is one mode of literary criticism. It is a way of drawing meaning from a text by comparing it to other texts. Our interpretations are naturally shaped by our shared experiences and the literary allusions we pick up while noting how a text compares, influences or reflects another. As you read, use your knowledge our Lewis text data bank as a way to draw greater meaning from your independent novel.  

• Here are a few videos to learn more about intertextuality:

•         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b9I3WoEHBo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwTpsw-ufDA
•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrwqVMpgQak

Novel Suggestions:
*If it is not linked, that means I own a copy that you may borrow.

On Fantasy and Fiction

• On Stories (Lewis)
• The Great Divorce  (Lewis)
• The Dark Tower and Other Stories (Lewis)
• Of Other Worlds (Lewis)
• Phantastes (George MacDonald)
• Descent into Hell (Charles Williams)
• Any work of Tolkien.

Influencing Literature and His Literary Critique

• Allegory of Love (Lewis)
• Studies in Words (Lewis) 
• The Consolation of Philosophy (Boethius) 
• A few others are listed here. 
• Any work from another Inkling Writer. Explore them here.

Knowing Lewis (Life and Letters)

• Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (Lewis-Autobiography)
• A Severe Mercy (Sheldon Vanauken)
• Letters to an American Lady (Lewis) 
• Letters to Children (Ed. by Dorsett and Mead)
• C.S. Lewis's List: The Ten Books that Influenced Him Most (Werther & Werther)
• And of course there are several biographies.

On Theology

• Letter to Malcolm (Lewis)
• A Mind Awake (Essays by Lewis, edited by Clyde S. Kilby)
• Preparing for Easter (Readings from Lewis)
• Confessions (St. Augustine)
• Miracles (Lewis)
• Reflections on the Psalms (Lewis)

On Philosophy and Psychology

• Smoke on the Mountains (Joy Davidman) 
• Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley (Peter Kreeft)
  
• The Present Age (Soren Kirkegaard) 
• Fear and Trembling (Soren Kirkegaard)
• The Question of God: Lewis vs. Freud (A.M. Nicholi)
• The Everlasting Man (G.K.Chesterton)
• The Consolation of Philosophy (Boethius)   
• Theism and Humanism (Aurthur James Balfour)