What was C.S. Lewis’s academic field at Cambridge when he became its first professor in 1954?

C.S. Lewis became Cambridge’s first professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature in 1954.

The position was created for him when he moved from Oxford to Cambridge. His scholarship had long focused on English literature, especially medieval and Renaissance writing, and he was widely respected as a literary historian as well as a creative author.

Lewis’s academic work included studies of allegory, medieval cosmology, and the development of English literature. His book The Allegory of Love, published in 1936, helped establish his reputation as a serious scholar. At Cambridge, he became a fellow of Magdalene College and continued teaching and writing.

The title is sometimes shortened in casual accounts to “English literature,” but the official Cambridge chair specifically covered Medieval and Renaissance Literature. That precise field connects his fiction with his professional expertise.