Innan omvändelsen : Skolgångens betydelse I C.S. Lewis Av Glädje Överfallen

Sammanfattning: In this thesis I have studied the British author C.S. Lewis´s conversion story as it is presented in his autobiography, more specifically his schooling at Malvern College. I have chosen to study his school period since Lewis himself puts great value on how his youth and school period made him into the person who in the 1930s became a Christian, not only including but putting great emphasis on these events in his conversion story. The purpose of my study is to examine the importance of Lewis’s schooling at Malvern College and the relation it has to his conversion story as written in his autobiography. My focus question is, “Why does Lewis describe his school period in such detail in his conversion story?”. To analyze my material, Lewis’s autobiography, I use a hermeneutic method. To answer the focus question, I use Roy Baumeister´s theory of “self-presentation”, which argues that there are two types of motives regarding why individuals present themselves in a certain way; “pleasing the audience” and “self-construction”. The first motive is that the individuals present themselves in line with thoughts and expectations of a certain group. “Self-construction”, on the other hand, is when individuals present themselves to a general audience and they are motivated, with their presentation, to achieve their own goals. Based on my contextualization of the schooling as a part of the larger conversion story told in Lewis’ autobiography, and especially through my analysis of the part describing his time at Malvern College, as well as through earlier research on the topic, the following are examples of conclusions that I have made: in comparison to prior research, in which each researcher presented one conclusion each, Lewis writes about his schooling at Malvern College for different reasons depending on the context, depending on what Lewis wants to achieve in that part. I have also made a conclusion that even though Lewis takes a firm stand that the events in the book will only be included if they contribute to his conversion story the events, the part I have analyzed in this thesis, does not contribute to the story of how Lewis abandoned atheism and turned to Christianity.