3. Chapters 1-4: Key Quotes

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we provide a few more quotes to help flesh out the overview of Chapters 1-4 that was provided in the previous module. These quotes include Sassoon’s conversation with Rivers in Chapter 2 (“Agony’s lying in a shell-hole with your legs shot off. I was upset”), Rivers’ conversation with Graves about Sassoon (“It seems to be entirely a matter of of horror at the extent of the slaughter…”), and the description of Rivers, a man who “had become adept at finding bearable aspects to unbearable experiences”).

Course

In this course, we explore Pat Barker’s ‘Regeneration’. Set in 1917 in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, the novel follows psychiatrist William Rivers as he treats shell-shocked soldiers, including the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. This course sees Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) read through novel chapter-by-chapter, focusing on key moments and episodes in the novel, thinking about the wider themes and issues with which this rich, complex, and enjoyable novel is engaged.

Lecturer

John McRae is Special Professor of Language in Literature Studies and Teaching Associate in the School of English at Nottingham University, and holds Visiting Professorships in China, Malaysia, Spain and the USA. He is co-author of The Routledge History of Literature in English with Ron Carter, and also wrote The Language of Poetry, Literature with a Small 'l' and the first critical edition of Teleny by Oscar Wilde and others.