Manifestations of Seeman’s theory of alienation in Pat Barker’s Regeneration (1991)

Abstract

This article examines how Seeman’s theory of alienation (1959) and contemporary interpretations thereof in Geyer (1996), Kalekin-Fishman (1998), and Neal & Collas (2000) in particular, manifest in Pat Barker’s Regeneration (1991). It is argued that Regeneration, Barker’s best known novel, set at Craiglockhart War Hospital during the World War I, provides a specific perspective on alienation in times of war. The article discusses the ways in which Seeman’s notions of powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, and social isolation manifest, and it is argued that the most prominent aspect of Seeman’s alienation in this novel is powerlessness.