作為布克獎得主帕特·巴克創作轉型的標志性作品,1991年出版的《重生》已成為研究巴克無法繞過的節點。作品中,詩人西格夫里·薩松等因為在一戰中遭受創傷,出現夢魘、失憶和啞癥等癥狀,而不得不待在奎葛洛卡戰時醫院接受治療。此前,關于一戰的作品更多是著力于塑造英雄形象,但在《重生》中,昔日的英雄成為被療治的對象。通過醫生黎佛斯和遭受戰爭創傷的軍人間的互動,作品不僅以間接的方式呈現了戰爭的慘烈及其對個體和社會的影響,還揭示了隱藏在創傷話語中的權力和個體間的規訓和反抗關系,個體創傷最終演變為進入歷史的通道。在強調和平共處的全球化語境中,通過將一戰建構為個體創傷,一戰被重新整合到英國集體性身份重構的架構中,巴克的倫理訴求得以顯現。

In the critically acclaimed World War I novel Regeneration(1991), which brought Pat Barker’s writing career to its second stage, soldiers like the poet Siegfried Sassoon are receiving treatment at a hospital for traumatic symptoms such as nightmares, amnesia, and mutism, the image of the war hero in previous war literature now reduced to the traumatic victim. Through the interaction between Dr. Rivers and the wounded soldiers, the novel not only depicts the horror of war and its impact on individuals and the whole society, but it also reveals the hidden antagonism between disciplinary power and individual resistance. Revisiting individual traumas as an access to history, Barker conveys her ethical concerns as to how the individual war experience can be integrated into Britain’s current project of reconstructing its collective identity in the contemporary era, which promotes peaceful coexistence between nations.