Ambivalence of patriotism: the ideas of nation and homeland in the publicism of Clive Staples Lewis
This article makes an attempt of scholarly reflection on the meaning of the concepts of patriotism, nationalism and homeland. Those are the core categories in the publicism of the famous British writer, religious philosopher and public intellectual of 20th century Clive Staples Lewis. The research is based on the analysis of the works and essays of C. S. Lewis, the studies of Ukrainian and the Western scholars, philosophers and publicists (journalists). It demonstrates the communicative potential of Lewis’s texts and examines the theory of «ambivalent patrio tism» in the context of general philosophical and publicistic discourse. C. S. Le wis categorizes patriotism by the degree of its «sanctification » and therefore identifies four stages of patriotic feelings. This article thoroughly analyzes these stages and along with studying other works of the writer interpolates them in the general discourse of patriotism and nationalism, outlines a comprehensive overview of the Lewis’ ideology. At the same time, by studying not only the publicistic articles of C. S. Lewis (in the traditional interpretation of this genre), but also his other works, the author argues the hypothesis the publicism is not necessarily limited by a specific type of the materials. The key features of this genre can be as well identified in other literary texts, such as fiction, novels, poems, treatises and so on. This research also focuses on the ideological and notional aspects of the texts based on the core principles of the theory of «conceptual publicism». Keywords: patriotism, nationalism, national and extra-national identity, publicism, religious conscience.