Reciprocal Haunting: Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy
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Karen Patrick Knutsen Karen Patrick Reciprocal Haunting Faculty of Arts and Education English Reciprocal Haunting: Pat Barker's Reciprocal Pat Barker’s fictional account of the Great War, The Regeneration Trilogy, completed in 1995, won wide popular and critical acclaim and established her as a major contemporary British writer. Although the trilogy appears to be written in the realistic style of the traditional historical novel, Barker approaches the past with certain preoccupations from 1990s Britain and rewrites the past as seen through these contemporary lenses. Consequently, the trilogy conveys a sense of reciprocal haunting; the past Karen Patrick Knutsen returns to haunt the present, but the present also haunts Barker’s vision of the past. This haunting quality is developed through an extensive, intricate pattern of intertextuality. This study offers a reading of trauma, class, gender and psychology as thematic areas where intertexts Regeneration are activated, allowing Barker to revise and re-accentuate stories of the past. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of discourse and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue, it focuses on the trilogy as an interactive link in an intertextual chain of communication about the Great War. My reading shows that the trilogy presents social structures from different historical epochs through dialogism and Trilogy Reciprocal Haunting diachronicity, making the present-day matrices of power and knowledge that continue to determine people’s lives highly visible. The Regeneration Trilogy regenerates the past, simultaneously confirming Barker’s claim that the historical novel can also be “a backdoor into the present”. Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy Karlstad University Studies DISSERTATION ISSN 1403-8099 Karlstad University Studies ISBN 978-91-7063-176-4 2008:17 Karen Patrick Knutsen Reciprocal Haunting Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy DISSERTATION Karlstad University Studies 2008:17 Karen Patrick Knutsen. Reciprocal Haunting: Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy Karlstad University Studies 2008:17 ISSN 1403-8099 ISBN 978-91-7063-176-4 © The Author Distribution: Faculty of Arts and Education English 651 88 Karlstad 054-700 10 00 www.kau.se Printed at: Universitetstryckeriet, Karlstad 2008 Abstract Knutsen, Karen Patrick. Reciprocal Haunting: Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy. Doctoral dissertation. Department of English. Karlstad University. Karlstad University Studies 2008:17. ISBN: 978-91-7063-176-4. Pat Barker’s fictional account of the Great War, The Regeneration Trilogy, completed in 1995, is considered to be her most important work to date and has captured the imagination of the reading public as well as attracting considerable scholarly attention. Although the trilogy appears to be written in the realistic style of the traditional historical novel, Barker approaches the past with certain preoccupations from 1990s Britain and rewrites the past as seen through these contemporary lenses. Consequently, the trilogy illustrates not only how the past returns to haunt the present, but also how the present reciprocally haunts perceptions of the past. The haunting quality of the trilogy is developed through an extensive, intricate pattern of intertextuality. This reciprocal haunting at times breaks the realistic framework of the narrative, giving rise to anachronisms. This study offers a reading of trauma, class, gender and psychology as thematic areas where intertexts are activated, allowing Barker to revise and re-accentuate stories of the past. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of discourse and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue, it focuses on the trilogy as an interactive link in an intertextual chain of communication about the Great War. Received versions of history are confirmed, expanded on and sometimes questioned. What is innovative about the trilogy is how Barker incorporates discursive formations not only from the Great War period, but from the whole twentieth century. The Great War is regenerated and transformed as it passes from one dialogic context to another. My reading shows that the trilogy presents social structures from different historical epochs through dialogism and diachronicity, making the present-day matrices of power and knowledge that continue to surround, determine and limit people’s lives highly visible. The Regeneration Trilogy regenerates the past, simultaneously confirming Barker’s claim that the historical novel can also be “a backdoor into the present”. Keywords: Pat Barker, The Regeneration Trilogy, class, gender, psychology, discourse, cultural trauma, dialogue, dialogism, power/knowledge, Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Raymond Williams, Cultural Materialism, New Historicism, shell shock, psychoanalysis, British literature 1900-1999 3 Acknowledgements My period as a part-time graduate student at Karlstad University, Sweden began in 2001 and has been combined with my work as an English lecturer at Østfold University College in Halden, Norway – my workplace since 1992. These two institutions are united through UNISKA (The University Alliance, Central Scandinavia), and it was this cooperation that enabled me to embark on the road to my dissertation. I am extremely grateful for the financial and moral support I have received from both institutions. I am particularly indebted to the Dean of the Department for Economics, Languages and Social Science at Østfold University College, Eva Lambertsson Björk, for her enthusiastic endeavours in the early establishment of the UNISKA cooperation and for personally encouraging me to apply for a place as a graduate student at the Department of English in Karlstad. Likewise, the present Chancellor of Østfold University College, Elin Nesje Vestli, has encouraged me more than she can possibly know through the interest she has shown in my study and with her comments on my work-in-progress. My deepest gratitude is to my supervisors, Mark Troy and Maria Holmgren Troy. Mark introduced me to a plethora of sources that made my study of Barker‟s trilogy both adventurous and fruitful. His humour, amazingly associative thinking, and probing questions have helped me grow as both a thinker and a writer. Likewise, Maria has brought many new sources and ideas to my attention and taught me to “Listen to the text!” all along the way. Furthermore, she encouraged me to participate in conferences in Karlstad and abroad, and proved to be a very pleasant conference companion. Mark and Maria‟s help and encouragement have been essential; without it, this thesis would never have materialized. On top of their extremely busy teaching schedules and in addition to their own research projects they have given me immediate and cogent responses to what must have seemed like a never-ending stream of confused ranting and raving in paper form. Thank you both. I have always been warmly received at the Department of English in Karlstad and would also like to thank Åke Bergvall, Elisabeth Wennö, Johan Wijkmark, Helena Hyttinen, Erik Falk, Jennifer Myerscough, David Dickson and Magnus Ullen for stimulating discussions on work-in-progress papers and for their valuable comments on my work. Johan and his wife Sofia opened their home to me many times, making trips to Karlstad memorable social occasions. I send thanks to their son Grim for always giving up his bed to me. Likewise, Helena Hyttinen opened her home to me and was even so forthcoming as to 5 share my horrible experience of sliding off an icy Karlstad road in my car and smashing into a tree one cold Swedish winter. I am grateful as well to Johan A. Höglund of Kalmar University College who was kind enough to come to Karlstad and do a thorough job as opponent and commentator for my final seminar. His observations and suggestions, and those of the other participants helped me to clarify many points and to make a number of necessary revisions in the thesis. My colleagues in Norway have spent hours and hours reading drafts in various states of confusion. Thanks to Robert Mikkelsen, my academic mentor for more than 16 years, to Magne Dypedahl and Henrik Bøhn. Robert and Magne took on extra administrative work and teaching responsibilities to ensure that I had time for research, and I am extremely grateful for their support. Two colleagues, Britt Wenche Svenhard and Richard Burgess have stepped in and taught my regular courses while I did research, and I would like to thank them both for doing a wonderful job. Three colleagues and fellow doctoral students from different disciplines, Catharina Bjørkquist, Wenche Falch, and Kjersti Lien Holte were stimulating travel companions and discussion partners when we attended doctoral seminars in Karlstad. I have also had the pleasure of mutual commiseration with Camilla Bjørke, Glenn Ole Hellekjær, Berit Løken and Jan Moren, all doctoral fellows with connections to Halden. Likewise, Geir Alfdal deserves thanks for arranging a doctoral forum in Halden for fellows from all five departments of Østfold University College. The sessions have been interesting and inspiring. Karlstad University financed my participation in The Graduate Summer School of Literature and Literary Theory in 2001 and 2002, held in Karlskrona, Sweden at the Blekinge Institute of Technology. I am grateful to Danuta Fjellestad who was the prime mover in organizing the summer schools and all the other professors and doctoral fellows who participated in them. It was a truly rich learning experience. Østfold University College and UNISKA generously gave me travel grants for those schools and for the