Materia appetit formam ut virum femina : Form and Matter in C. S. Lewis

Abstract

Throughout his writings, Lewis uses the metaphysical coupling of forma and materia as a way of thinking about and explaining moral as well as literary problems. Critics have little remarked upon the ways in which forma and materia connect Lewis' moral and literary ideas. This omission is rather surprising, given the remarkable consistency of Lewis thought. Yet we miss an important element of Lewis scholarly, theological, and philosophical work if we do not notice how intricately connected these areas are by the dichotomy of forma and materia. Indeed, for Lewis, the forma and materia of literature are analogous to moral choice and human experience; both in literature and in real life, human experience is the matter which “longs for form.”