Which subject did C.S. Lewis teach as the Cambridge chair he held from 1954?

From 1954, C.S. Lewis held the Cambridge chair of Medieval and Renaissance English.

The academic title was the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge. Lewis was appointed to the post in 1954 and remained there until his death in 1963. The position gave him a formal Cambridge role after many years as a tutor and fellow at Oxford University.

Lewis’s scholarship covered medieval and Renaissance literature, including works by authors such as John Milton. His academic books include The Allegory of Love and A Preface to Paradise Lost. These studies helped establish him as a literary historian, separate from his public reputation as a Christian apologist and children’s author.

A frequent mix-up is to identify Lewis only with Oxford. He spent most of his teaching career at Oxford’s Magdalen College, but his final academic appointment was at Cambridge. The chair’s subject was specifically English literature from the medieval and Renaissance periods.