November 4, 2020
C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers pursued a long and rich correspondence, and many have credited his friendship with and admiration for Sayers with “preparing” Lewis for his eventual marriage to Joy Davidman, a similarly strong and brilliant woman.
“She aspired to be, and was, at once a popular entertainer and a conscientious craftsman: like (in her degree) Chaucer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, or Moliere. I have an idea that, with a very few exceptions, it is only such writers who matter much in the long run. . . . She never sank the artist and the entertainer in the evangelist.”-C. S. Lewis
In this video, Sayers scholar Dr. Crystal L. Downing discusses the book, "The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers: Selections from Her Novels, Plays, Letters, and Essays," edited by Carole Vanderhoof, comparing it to Dr. Downing's own, very important, new book, "Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers."
In "The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers," renowned murder mystery writer Dorothy Sayers is shown to tackle faith, doubt, human nature, and the most dramatic and greatest story ever told.
For almost a century, a series of Sayers's labyrinthine murder mysteries have kept fans turning pages hungrily as Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane discover whodunit, again and again.
Detective novel enthusiasts may not know that for almost as many years, Christian thinkers have appreciated the same Dorothy L. Sayers for her acumen as an essayist, playwright, apologist, and preeminent translator of Dante’s "Divine Comedy."
Now, "The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers" brings together the best of both worlds, and Dr. Downing shows how the selections uncover the gospel themes woven throughout Sayers’s popular fiction as well as her religious plays, correspondence, talks, and essays. Clues dropped throughout her detective stories reveal an attention to matters of faith that underlies all her work.
Those who know Sayers from her nonfiction writings may wonder how she could also write popular genre fiction. Sayers, like her friend G. K. Chesterton, found murder mysteries a vehicle to explore the choices characters make between good and evil. Along with C. S. Lewis and such other Inklings as Charles Williams, as well s T.S. Eliot and others, with whom she maintained a lively correspondence, Sayers used her popular fiction to probe deeper questions. She addressed not only matters of guilt and innocence, sin and redemption, but also the cost of war, the role of the conscience, and the place of women in society.
None of these themes proved any hindrance to spinning a captivating yarn. Her murder mysteries are more reminiscent of Jane Austen than Arthur Conan Doyle, with all the tense interpersonal exploration of the modern novel.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Crystal L. Downing is Co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and Co-Holder of the Marion E. Wade Chair in Christian Thought at Wheaton College, a position she shares with her husband, Dr. David C. Downing. Formerly Distinguished Professor of English and Film Studies at Messiah College, she is author of the books, "Writing Performances: The Stages of Dorothy L. Sayers," winner of Barbara Reynolds Award for Best Sayers Scholarship; "How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith" and "Changing Signs of Truth" that both explore the relationship between cultural studies and Christianity; and "Salvation from Cinema: The Medium Is the Message" that assesses the field of “religion and film."
BOOKS:
"The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers: Selections from Her Novels, Plays, Letters, and Essays," edited by Carole Vanderhoof
www.amazon.com...
"Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers," by Crystal L. Downing
www.amazon.com...
"Writing Performances: The Stages of Dorothy L. Sayers," by Crystal L. Downing
www.amazon.com...
"Are Women Human? Penetrating, Sensible, and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society," by Dorothy L. Sayers
www.amazon.com...
"The Mind of the Maker," by Dorothy L. Sayers
www.amazon.com...
"The Man Born to Be King," by Dorothy L. Sayers
www.amazon.com...
"Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories," by Dorothy L. Sayers
www.amazon.com...
"Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories," by Dorothy L. Sayers
www.amazon.com...
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29 сен 2024
