The Inklings were an informal literary society centered in Oxford in the 1930's and 1940's consisting of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield and various others who met to drink, share ideas, discuss drafts, and read literature together. A high-minded set, their writing is at times esoteric and philosophical, and at other times playful, childish, and extremely popular. This class will study a sampling of the group's output--detective fiction, essays, fables, lectures, and letters--listening for the ongoing imaginative engagement these works have with one another all while engaging big philosophical questions: what is real? how do we know? how might literature help us toward clearer perceptions?

C.S. Lewis

The Silver Chair;
Present Concerns

Charles Williams

War in Heaven

Dorothy Sayers

Gaudy Night

J.R.R. Tolkien

Farmer Giles of Ham & Smith of Wootton Major

Owen Barfield

Worlds Apart