Regeneration: The first novel in Pat Barker's Booker Prize-winning Regeneration trilogy (Regeneration, 1)

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He recovers the experience of warfare from the soldiers he treats, but knows nothing of it at first hand. He is teaching his men to remember, but he approaches their memories as a foreigner, guiltily wishing that he had been able to fight. Disconcertingly, though he treats his patients with something close to tenderness, he is not some anti-war hero with whom the contemporary reader can easily identify. He believes that "the war must be fought to a finish, for the sake of the succeeding generations".

Regeneration (novel) - Wikipedia

The novel has been treated both as a war novel and an anti-war novel. In her 2004 interview with critic Rob Nixon, Barker describes her conceptualisation of that boundary: After his experience with hypnosis, Prior is traumatised and upset. He begins headbutting Rivers' chest after he wakes up. This seems a somewhat violent act. In reality, it is the only way Prior can touch another man and gain any kind of comfort in a society that does not allow men to do this. Mukherjeea, Ankhi (2001). "Stammering to Story: Neurosis and Narration in Pat Barker's Regeneration". Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 43 (1): 49–62. doi: 10.1080/00111610109602171. S2CID 145071817. The tension between traditional models of masculinity and the experiences within the war runs throughout the novel. [7] Critic Greg Harris identifies Regeneration, along with the other two novels in the trilogy, as profiling the non-fictional experience of Sassoon and other soldiers who must deal with ideas of masculnity. [7] These characters feel conflicted by a model of masculinity common to Britain during this time: honour, bravery, mental strength, and confidence were privileged "manly" characteristics. [7] Yet they explore, internally and through conversation, what that model means for them and how the war changes how they should experience it. [7] In an interview with Barker in Contemporary Literature, Rob Nixon distinguishes between these ideas of "manliness" and the concept of masculinity as providing a larger definition for identity. Barker agrees with his assessment, saying, "and what's so nice about them is that they use it so unself-consciously: they must have been the last generation of men who could talk about manliness without going "ugh" inside." [5] Barker, Pat (2008). Regeneration. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-190643-0. 'Brilliant, intense and subtle' Peter Kemp, Sunday TimesThe mother of Sarah Lumb. Ada is a practical woman who does not believe in love between a man and a woman. She desires nothing more than for her daughters to be the beneficiaries of a stable pension from their deceased husbands. Ada is very involved in her daughter's life, and she cautions Sarah about the risks of pregnancy. Ada is toughened by the reality of raising two daughters alone in a time when women do not make much money. Dr. Lewis Yealland The Eye in the Door begins in the Spring of 1918. It continues the stories of Rivers, Sassoon, and Prior. There is a special focus on Prior in this novel of Barker's. Prior is now working for the domestic side of the military as he was medically discharged from fighting in Regeneration due to his asthma. He is now helping to investigate the plots of pacifist groups that are against the war. Prior is slightly uncomfortable with this. He is not a pacifist but is working class and does not like helping the authorities to spy on ordinary people. A conscientious objector is a term used to describe a person who refuses to join an army or participate in violence based on moral grounds. These may be religious or personal reasons. An old friend of Rivers from their days at Cambridge. Like Rivers, Head is now a practicing psychiatrist. At Cambridge, the two men worked together on research charting nerve regeneration in the arm and hand. Head is a dedicated scientist who believes strongly in the merits of his research, and is a good friend to Rivers. Bryce The novel is thematically complex, exploring the effect of the War on identity, masculinity, and social structure. Moreover, the novel draws extensively on period psychological practices, emphasising Rivers' research as well as Freudian psychology. Through the novel Barker enters a particular tradition of representing the experience of World War I in literature: many critics compare the novel to other World War I novels, especially those written by women writers interested in the domestic repercussions of the war, including Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier (1918) and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1925). Barker both drew on those texts of the period that initially inspired her and makes references to a number of other literary and cultural works and events. These give an impression of historical realism, even though Barker tends to refute the claim that the novel is "historical fiction".

Regeneration Study Guide | GradeSaver Regeneration Study Guide | GradeSaver

Kakutani, Michiko (29 February 2008). "Exploring Small Stories of the Great War". The New York Times.

Skidelsky, William (13 May 2012). "The 10 best historical novels". The Observer. Guardian Media Group . Retrieved 13 May 2012. Barker had long appreciated the literary figures she draws inspiration from in the novel: she read the World War I poetry of Sassoon and Owen as well as Rivers' Conflict and Dream in her youth. [4] However, Barker directly attributes the immediate inspiration for Regeneration to her husband, a neurologist familiar with the writings of Dr. W.H.R. Rivers and his experiments with nerve regeneration. [4] In a 2004 interview with literary critic Rob Nixon in the journal Contemporary Literature, Barker also states she wrote the novel, in part, as a response to how her earlier fiction was being received; she said, On 5 November 2019, the BBC News listed Regeneration on its list of the 100 most influential novels. [27] According to academic critic Karin Westman, Regeneration was "well received by reviewers in both the UK and the United States." [28] Beyond frequent praise, the main points discussed often related to the veracity of Barker's depiction of the War period and about her role as a woman writer, along with the connections of this work to her previous novels. [28] Westman argues that many of these critics judged Barker's work on "content rather than style", so that this work allowed her to break from her earlier classification as a regional, working-class feminist into the "(male) canon of British literature". [28] The novel was even one of the "best novels of 1992", according to the New York Times. [1] [29]