8. Chapters 10-13: “What minute-bells for these who die so fast?”

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we explore Chapters 10-13, in which we witness the burgeoning relationship between Owen and Sassoon, among other things. Some of the important episodes that are discussed in this module include: Prior’s description of the time he finds a disembodied eye in the trenches (“What am I supposed to do with this gob-stopped?”), Sarah and Betty’s discussion of how their lives have changed since the beginning of the war (“Do you know what happened on August 4th 1914?... Peace broke out.”), the description of another patient, Willard, who came under fire while retreating through a graveyard, and now has “Requiescat in Pace stuck up [his] arse”, Rivers’ continued reflections on Sassoon and the other patients (“the experience of these young men paralleled the experience of the very old”), Sassoon’s discomfort at spending time in the hospital while others are being “blown to smithereens”, and – finally – Owen and Sassoon’s collaboration on a poem that will later become “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

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.