Pat Barker

(Paperback)

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Description

This book provides a comprehensive account and critical analysis of the literary career of Pat Barker. It offers readings of Barker's innovations in narrative form, her revisionist perspectives on history, class and gender, and her preoccupation with themes of trauma, haunting and terror. It also analyses the reasons for her success and significance as a novelist. The chapters draw on contemporary theories of critical realism, gender and social identities, memory and narrative, in order to outline the debates with which Barker's work has consistently engaged. Brannigan argues that Barker is one of the most important writers in modern English literary history. She is principally renowned and widely acclaimed for her 'Regeneration' trilogy, the last volume of which, 'The Ghost Road', won the Booker Prize in 1995. In recent novels, Barker has continued to deal with controversial and shocking themes, including child murderers and the meanings of 'terror' in the contemporary world. -- .

Reviews

''This is a lucidly written and thoughtfully argued book that makes a case for Barker's 'critical realism' and for the idea of a 'negative epic' as a key feature of her fiction. Discussion of time, memory and history animates the study and careful attention is paid to the novels' formal characteristics. Brannigan's is the best reading of 'Union Street' to date and when he discusses imagery (as in the animal imagery in 'Border Crossing') he opens up the texts in revealing ways."--Sharon Monteith, University of Nottingham.""

Author Bio

John Brannigan is Senior Lecturer in English at University College Dublin