The production and re-production of masculine subjects in Pat Barker's 'Regeneration'.

摘要

This paper explores the production and re-production of British masculine identity through the characters in Pat Barker's Regeneration. It focuses on four male characters from the novel: Siegfried Sassoon (a WWI officer and poet), Robert Graves (also a WWI officer and a friend of Sassoon's), Billy Prior (an officer from the working class) and Dr. W. H. R. Rivers (a psychoanalyst that treated Sassoon). This paper also draws from select sociological texts concerning "shell-shock," disillusionment amongst WWI officers and comradeship. The purpose of this paper is to show that Barker is commenting on how the ideology of British masculinity is subject to scrutiny and when the novel is examined closely it shows how complex and problematic British masculinity was during WWI.