The category of boundary in C. S. Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength”: Between Logres and Britain

Abstract

   The article deals with the category of boundary in the science-fiction novel of the English writer, philologist and theologist C. S. Lewis “That Hideous Strength” (written in 1945). This is the third novel of C. S. Lewis’ “The Space Trilogy”: “Out of the Silent Planet” (1938), “Perelandra” (1943) and “That Hideous Strength” itself. The researchers suppose that the genres of all three novels present the combination of science fiction and fantasy. Considering the plot and the images, the theme of the boundary is crucial for these novels, but in comparison with the conventional one, the paradigm “cosmos/chaos” is changed almost everywhere; the Earth (“home”) is presented as fallen and separated from the whole Space. This point of view is typical for Lewis’ historical, literary and theological works. In general, we can see this division in “That Hideous Strength”; nevertheless, its plot is based on the national myth, the legend about King Arthur; at the same time, in the context of the Arthurian legend, there is a conventional paradigm. Surrounded by the hostile world, the idyllic manor of St. Anne’s, where the positive characters live, turns out to be the representation of a “core” of Britain, its essence that is called Logres in the reality of the novel.