Hope College | English

Charles Huttar

HUTTAR, CHARLES A., Professor Emeritus (1966-1996).

Eduction: A.B., Wheaton College (1952); M.A., Northwestern University (1953); Ph.D., Northwestern University (1956).

Interests: Renaissance Literature; 20th-century literature especially the Inklings; Bible in/as Literature; Christian approaches to literary study; angels in the literary imagination; words and proverbs; literature and the visual arts; local history; doubles in literature.

Selected Works: Editor, Imagination and the Spirit: Essays in Literature and the Christian Faith (1971); Co-editor, Scandalous Truths: Essays by and about Susan Howatch (forthcoming), The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams (1996), Word and Story in C. S. Lewis (1991); author, "C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, and the Milton Legacy: The Nativity Ode Revisted" (2002). Other publications include four edited booklets, more than 100 articles and notes, about 50 book reviews.

Distinctions: Elected to the Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church (1999); Mythopoeic Society Inklings Scholarship Award (1991, 1996); President, Conference on Christianity and Literature (1966-68). Also see Professional Activities.

Publications:

with Bruce Johnson, editors Scandelous Truths: Essays by and about Susan Howatch (Selinsgrove: Susquehanna Univerity Press, 2005).
Susan Howatch's bestsellers have appeared regularly since the 1970s, but a radical shift in her subject matter in the 80s made reviewers and then academics stare hard at her pages. Scandelous Truths provides a way into Howatch's world by presenting for the first time some of her own articulations of her guiding principles, and by allowing a group of scholars to engage in a wide-ranging discussion of her art. A decade of scholarly presentations and articles now culminates in this book.

with Peter J. Schakel, The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996).
In this collection of essays, nineteen scholars examine the rhetorical means that English author Charles Williams (1886-1945) employed to convey his metaphysical, ethical, and social vision, and the rhetorical theories that guided him. About half of the essays consider Williams’s fiction; the others discuss his poetry, plays, historical and theological writings, and literary criticism. The volume was awarded the 1997 Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies by the Mythopoeic Society.

with Peter J. Schakel, editors, Word and Story in C. S. Lewis (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991).
The sixteen essays in this collection examine Lewis’s ideas about language and narrative, demonstrating that awareness of his theories is essential to an understanding and appreciation of his works. Contributors examine works that had at the time received little attention, such as his poetry, The Dark Tower, and Studies in Words, as well as familiar works such as the Narnia Stories, the Ransom trilogy, Surprised by Joy, and The Allegory of Love. The collection includes an introduction by Professor Schakel and an essay by Professor Huttar, “A Lifelong Love Affair with Language: C. S. Lewis’s Poetry.” Awarded the 1992 Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies by the Mythopoeic Society.

Imagination and the Spirit: Essays in Literature and the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971).
This volume, honoring Clyde Kilby upon his retirement from the faculty of Wheaton College, is made up of eighteen essays in four categories: (1) Art and Philosophy; (2) Writers in the Christian Tradition; (3) Inklings and Ancestors; and (4)Aspects of the Contemporary Scene. It includes an essay be Professor Huttar, “Samson’s Identity Crisis and Milton’s.”