Well, as I have been taught for many years, when looking for the author's intent, you should always go to the author and see what they intended. (I love my expensive education. You can get a degree in it.)
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Here is C S Lewis' view (straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak) set out in a letter recently discovered in an archive, written in 1961 from Magdalen College, Oxford to a child fan.
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"The whole Narnian story is about Christ . . . Supposing there really was a world like Narnia . . . and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have happened?
“The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called ‘the lion of Judah’ in the Bible.”
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So that settles it? Probably not.
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Disagreement exists concerning the art/science of literary interpretation. Can you just take anything out of it as some people are suggesting (a reader-response approach)? Or is an allegory able to contain an inherent meaning, which allows for one interpretation and excludes another? That's the question.
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And there's a deeper question. Is there such a thing as truth? An objective, verifiable reality? The jury's out on that one and the debate is proving fierce.
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But as for C S Lewis's intention? It would dishonour him not to allow him to speak for himself. Here we are, Jack. Here's your moment.
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"The whole Narnian story is about Christ."
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