Study Guide: Pat Barker, Regeneration World War One British Poets

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Regeneration is the first novel in Pat Barker's trilogy on World War I and its aftermath. This is a historical novel based on many true characters, such as the writer and war hero Siegfried Sassoon, the poet Wilfred Owen and Dr. W.H.R. Rivers who wrote extensively on mental disorders of warfare.

The anthology World War One British Poets gives us the first-hand opportunity to read the works of Sassoon and Owen among others. Through these poems we are able to charter a fluctuation between patriotism and anger.

Study Questions | Topics for Further Research | Videos | Internet Resources

Study Questions

1. What are Sassoon's main arguments against the war and why has he been set to Craiglockhart?

2. Who is the "enemy" for Sassoon? Do you think he is a pacifist?

3. Why does Rivers think that writing is therapeutic for Sassoon? What is the role of poetry for the individual and society during war?

4. Robert Graves is another historical character. His role in the novel is ambiguous at best. How do you compare him to Sassoon?

5. Explain Rivers' therapeutic work and medical beliefs. Do you think that by treating the soldiers and making them well enough to go back to the front Rivers is breaking the Hippocratic oath?

6. Owen and Sassoon have two contrasting views on poetry. Explain what they are. Do you think they are metaphors of their respective views about the war?

7. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome or shell shock or severe traumatic stress plays an important role in the novel. Why do you think each patient's case has been chosen?

8. The novel is structured around the two dilemmas of the main characters: Sassoon and Rivers. What are these dilemmas? How are they resolved?

9. Choose a set of poems and analyze how they present the experience of war. For example, look carefully at the detailed depiction of the trenches or at the stances towards authority or at the different kinds of love the poems explore.

Topics for further research

· Research the characters' historical roles and lives.

· Investigate the Pacifist movement and Bertrand Russell's role in it.

· Find out more about the social impact of WWI in England. Look carefully at the class and gender changes that take place.

· Discuss differences between generational and civilian vs. combatants' views of the war.

· Research Sigmund Freud and place Rivers's work within the psychoanalytical advances of the time. What is shell shock?

Videos-on reserve at Hatfield Library

Behind the Lines (Dir. Gillies MacKinnon, 1998, 105 min.) Call no.: PN1995.9.B55 R35 1998

All Quiet on the Western Front (dir. Lewis Milestone, 1988, 130 mins.) Call no.: PN 1995.9 W3 A4 1988

The Chaplin Revue [Three short films]
"Shoulder Arms" (46 min.) stars Chaplin at the front lines during World War I.
(Written, directed, and scored by Charlie Chaplin, 1992)
Call No.: PN1995.9.S5 C3197 1992

The Complete Story : World War I (Prod. CBS, 1963, circa 11 hrs) Call no.: D522.22 .C65 2003 v.1 - v. 3

Grande illusion (French, English, and German dialogue with white English subtitles)
(Dir. Jean Renoir, 1999, [Originally issued in France as a motion picture in 1937], 114 min.)
Call no.: PN1995.91.F7 G8 1999a DVD

J'accuse (Silent Film) (Dir. Abel Gance, 1990, [Video release of the 1919 motion picture], 148 min.)
Call no.: PN1995.9.S5 J2 1990

Johnny Got His Gun (dir. and writer Dalton Trumbo, 1971, 111 mins.) Call no: PN 1995.9 .W3 J64 1982

King of Hearts [Le roi de Coeur] (Dir. Philippe De Broca, 1990, [Video release of the 1966 motion picture], 101 min.)
Call no.: PN1995.91.F7 R6 1990

Paths of Glory (Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1989, [Video release of the 1957 motion picture], 89 min.)
Call no.: PN1995.9.W3 P2 1989

Westfront 1918 (German with English subtitles) (Dir. G.W. Pabst, 1987 [Video release of 1930 motion picture], 90 min.)
Call no.: PN1995.91.G4 V4 1987