سی ایس لوئیس: دیومالا ، فنطاسیہ اور حقیقت پسندی

(تلخیص و ترجمہ)

Abstract

This paper introduces and presents the Urdu translation of three chapters from Charles Staples Lewis’ An Experiment in Criticism. These chapters are titled On Myth, The Meaning of “Fantasy,” and On Realisms. Lewis wrote these chapters because the prevalent understanding of the nature of myth, fantasy and the necessity of realism in literature stand as an obstacle in the way of the experiment in criticism he is proposing. He suggests that instead of judging readers as good or bad in the light of books they read we do the opposite: We observe the reading habit of good and bad readers and determine the nature of good and bad literature in that light. The good readers ‘receive’ the books they read while the bad readers merely ‘use’ them. Hence good literature would be that which can and must be read in the former manner and bad would be that which can never be received but is only good for use. Now one of the wrong ways of looking at things would be to say that the bad readers are those who read mythological, fantasy literature while the good readers are the ones who read nothing but realistic literature which represents real and lived life instead of making the readers escape to some childish fairyland universe. In the course of these three chapters Lewis tears apart the prevailing notions of the nature and importance of myth, fantasy and realism in literature.