Trauma And Treatment In Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy

Pat Barker is an outstanding female writer in contemporary Britain.For the last 30 years,she wrote 13 novels,among which the most famous one is her Regeneration Trilogy(Regeneration,1991;The Eye in the Door,1993;Ghost Road,1995).The trilogy reflects the irreversible disaster the First World War brought to the whole British society.Before that,Barker was promoted by critics as “Northern,regional,working class,feminist” novelist,because most of her former works are about lives of marginalized working class people in the industrialized Northeastern England.She represents hardships and confusion of life for lower class people under the institutional system,especially women suffering and struggling.In 1996,the publishing of Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy truly established Barker's position as an eminent writer in Britain.In the trilogy,Barker explores a unique way to depict the Great War,and her works bring about numerous reflections on culture and life,which wins her good name of war writing.In this thesis,the author tries to analyze how Barker depicts trauma and treatment of her characters in the trilogy,and explores its deeper meaning,hopefully to reveal its realistic significance to the contemporary society.This thesis is divided into five chapters.Besides the introduction and the conclusion,the other three chapters analyze childhood trauma and war trauma of First World War soldiers such as Prior and Sassoon and Rivers,the psychiatrist and also the treatment of the traumatic symptoms.In the first chapter,the author explores Rivers' stammer and lack of visual memory after a childhood traumatic experience and Prior's personality split because of an unhappy family life and a sexual violence.The second chapter centers on direct war trauma of the soldiers and the indirect war trauma of the doctor,studying the unique narration method adopted by Barker.The final chapter focuses on treatment adopted by the doctors on the patients.In addition,because he himself also suffers from childhood trauma and indirect war traumatic symptoms,Rivers tries to find ways to cure himself.Through studying traumatic symptoms and causes as well as treatments of the soldiers and the doctor,the author tries to analyze how Pat Barker depicts the irreversible disaster the war brought to the whole British society and how the trilogy evokes the reflection on culture and life.What's more,study of Barker and her works is still new to our country;therefore,this thesis offers an opportunity for readers and critics to know more about Pat Barker and encourages deeper and more meaningful researches on his works,which is not only necessary,but also significant.