What was C.S. Lewis’s academic specialty at Oxford before he became a Cambridge professor?

C.S. Lewis specialized in medieval and Renaissance English at Oxford before becoming a Cambridge professor.

At Oxford, Lewis was an English literature scholar whose teaching and research focused heavily on older English writing. His academic career included work at Magdalen College, where he taught from 1925 until his move to Cambridge. His scholarship ranged from medieval literature to sixteenth-century English writing.

In 1954, Lewis became the first holder of the medieval and Renaissance English chair at Magdalene College, Cambridge. The appointment reflected his established reputation as a literary historian, not simply his fame as a Christian writer or author of children’s fiction.

His academic publications include The Allegory of Love, A Preface to Paradise Lost, and English Literature in the Sixteenth Century. These works show why Lewis’s literary criticism and his imaginative books are best understood as connected parts of his career.