Pat Barker (1943-Present) is an English novelist best known for her works of fiction that explore important topics such as trauma and recovery. Well-known works by Pat Barker include Union Street (1982), The Silence of the Girls (2018), and The Women of Troy (2021).
Let's take a look at Pat Barker's biography, books, and contributions to literature!
Pat Barker biography
Pat Barker was born on the 8th of May 1943 in Yorkshire (England) to single mother Moyra. At age seven, Barker's mother remarried and left the family home. Barker chose to stay and was raised by her maternal grandmother. At age eleven, Barker began attending King James Grammar School. She later attended Grangefield Grammar School. After completing her secondary education, Barker attended the London School of Economics, followed by Durham University. Pat Barker became a History and Politics teacher and began her writing career.
In 1978, Pat Barker married zoologist David Barker. The couple had two children together named John and Annabel. Pat Barker published her first novel Union Street in 1982. This work followed the lives and experiences of working-class women living on the same street together.
Union Street (1892) was originally rejected by publishers as they believed its depressing content would not sell well to readers. It was eventually published after ten years by Virago, a feminist publisher.
When still trying to get her work published, Barker met with fellow novelist Angela Carter, who told her, 'if they can't sympathise with the women you're creating, then sod their f***ing luck'.1
Once Union Street was eventually published, it received excellent reviews. The work was heralded by The New Statesman as a 'long overdue working class masterpiece'.1 This book was adapted into the film Stanley & Iris (1990), which starred Academy Award winning actors Robert De Niro and Jane Fonda!
Pat Barker's husband David passed away in 2009 at the age of 86. Pat Barker has continued her writing career up until the present day, with her most recent novel, The Women of Troy, being published in 2021.
List of Pat Barker books
During her lifetime, Pat Barker has written a total of 15 books:
- Union Street (1982)
- Blow Your House Down (1984)
- The Century's Daughter (1986)
- The Man Who Wasn't There (1988)
- Regeneration (1991) (Part of the Regeneration Trilogy)
- The Eye in the Door (1993) (Part of the Regeneration Trilogy)
- The Ghost Road (1995) (Part of the Regeneration Trilogy)
- Another World (1998)
- Border Crossing (2001)
- Double Vision (2003)
- Life Class (2007)
- Toby's Room (2012)
- Noonday (2015)
- The Silence of the Girls (2018)
- The Women of Troy (2021)
Pat Barker awards
Pat Barker has won recognition and acclaim for many of her novels. You can take a look at an overview of these below!
- In 1982, she won the Fawcett Society Book Prize for her novel Union Street.
- In 1983, Pat Barker was acknowledged to be one of 20 of the best young British novelists in Granta magazine.
- In 1993, she was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize for her novel The Eye in the Door.
- In 1995, Barker received the Booker Prize for her novel The Ghost Road.
- In 2000, she was given a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions and services to literature.
- In 2019, Barker received the Independent Bookshop Award.
- Pat Barker was also shortlisted for numerous other awards, including the Gordon Burn Prize, the Costa Novel Award, and the Women's Prize for Fiction.
Pat Barker: The Silence of the Girls (2018)
Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, first published in 2018, retells the Trojan War through the eyes of the women experiencing it. The Silence of the Girls moves away from the classic male-dominated narratives of Greek mythology and gives voice instead to the female experience. This novel explores the nature of war, and the actions and choices of those within it, utilising a feminist frame to capture the perspective of women at the time of war.
The Trojan War was a war in Greek Mythology. This war was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (or Greeks). The most notable narrative of the Trojan War is Homer's The Iliad (8th Century, BC).
Pat Barker: The Women of Troy (2021)
Published in 2021, Pat Barker's The Women of Troy is a sequel to The Silence of the Girls. The Women of Troy is set during the aftermath of the Trojan War and follows the protagonist Briseis, a born Trojan. After having married a Greek soldier, Briseis is now compelled to alter her perspective and redevelop her allegiances. The Women of Troy retells classic Greek mythology through a feminist lens, and the novel is narrated from the perspective of women, specifically the women of Troy.
Fig. 1 - Women's perspectives of Ancient Greece are often missing in literary canon.
Pat Barker trilogy
Pat Barker's The Regeneration Trilogy is a trilogy set of three novels - Regeneration (1991), The Eye in the Door (1993), and The Ghost Road (1995), all of which have their events based around the First World War.
The First World War was a global conflict that lasted from July 28th, 1914, to November 11th, 1918.
Pat Barker: Regeneration (1991)
The first of the three novels forming The Regeneration Trilogy, Regeneration, is a historical fiction novel set during the First World War. Regeneration focuses on the psychological impact of the First World War and is set in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. This hospital specialised in treating soldiers who were suffering from shell shock (known today as Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD), along with a variety of other psychiatric conditions. The novel follows the journey and growth of protagonist Dr W. H. Rivers as he tries to heal and rebuild his patients.
Fig. 2 - There are many historical fictions set in World War One and Two.
Pat Barker: The Eye in the Door (1993)
Pat Barker's The Eye in the Door is the second of the three novels forming The Regeneration Trilogy. It is set in 1918 in London and follows the story of Billy Prior, a former patient of Dr W. H. Rivers. Losing himself and breaking down, Billy Prior finds himself in need of Dr W. H. Rivers, with the hopes that he can help him just as he did once before. The Eye in the Door illuminates the inner conflict that many soldiers felt within themselves regarding their place in society and their duties as soldiers of war.
Pat Barker: The Ghost Road (1995)
Barker received the Booker Prize for The Ghost Road, the third and final instalment in The Regeneration Trilogy. The Ghost Road follows the paths each of the characters from the previous two novels take as the First World War is drawing to a close. Billy Prior returns to fight in the War, whilst Dr W. H. Rivers continues to treat patients who are suffering from mental health disorders relating to their experiences in the War. The novel follows the internal conflict of these characters as they fight their own personal battles within themselves.
The main focus of Pat Barker
Pat Barker's work is known for exploring complex and harrowing issues. From the themes of war, pacificism, and mental illness to sexual assault and murder, Barker's work does not offer a comfortable read.
One prominent theme in Pat Barker's work is women's struggles and experiences. For instance, in her debut novel Union Street (1982), Barker writes about seven working-class women from Northern England during the 1970s.
In the 1970s a period of deindustrialisation began in the North of England, during which several working-class jobs disappeared. Union Street explores the impact of this deindustrialization on the lives of seven women, addressing the issues of class and gender. One of the characters in Union Street is Lisa Goddard, a mother of two children, who is stuck in an abusive marriage with her unemployed husband. Lisa Goddard struggles to survive and keep her family afloat, living off subsidies, or universal credit, from the Government. Two additional characters in Union Street who find themselves in similar positions to Lisa Goddard, struggling with the impact of deindustrialisation and the poverty caused by it, are Muriel Scaife and Iris King.
Deindustrialisation refers to a reduction of industrial activity, such as factories or mines. In England between the 1970s and 1980s, there was a period of deindustrialisation, during which many people lost their jobs. This period heavily impacted those living in the North of England, as this part of the country had most of the country's factories.
Universal credit refers to a system in the United Kingdom in which people who have no or low income can receive money from the state. This system was previously known as 'benefits'.
Alongside Barker's characters who find themselves in the more traditional female roles of wives and mothers are Blonde Dinah, Joanne Wilson, Kelly Brown, and Alice Bell.
The stories of Joanne Wilson and Blonde Dinah both represent the issues of women's sexuality and the expectations placed upon women to only have sex inside of marriage. Joanne Wilson unexpectedly falls pregnant. She marries her boyfriend soon after, despite neither of them wanting to get married. They make this choice due to the societal pressure placed on women, and also men, to not have sex outside of marriage. By contrast, Blonde Dinah remains an unmarried woman throughout the novel. However, she works as a prostitute, subverting the expectations placed upon women to remain 'pure' until they are married.
Kelly Brown is the youngest character in the novel while Alice Bell is the oldest. Kelly Brown is an eleven-year-old girl and the younger sister of Linda Goddard. At the opening of the novel, Kelly Brown is raped, and she spends her story trying to work out how to cope with this trauma. Although the people around Kelly Brown know what has happened to her, this crime is never addressed directly. Instead, Kelly Brown is treated with pity, as people talk about her and what has happened behind her back.
Each character in Union Street faces varied hardships, which relate to their class and gender. From struggling to survive on low wages and government subsidies, to dealing with the traumas of abusive relationships and sexual assault, Pat Barker explores women's issues in an unrelenting and blunt way, openly addressing and portraying them.
Pat Barker - Key takeaways
- Pat Barker was born on the 8th of May 1943 in Yorkshire (England).
- She is best known for her novels, in which she often addresses important topics.
- Pat Barker married zoologist David Barker in 1978. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 86.
- Among the most renowned of Pat Barker's works is The Regeneration Trilogy - a trilogy set of three novels - Regeneration (1991), The Eye in the Door (1993), and The Ghost Road (1995).
- Pat Barker is still presently writing, with her most recent novel, The Women of Troy (sequel to The Silence of the Girls (2018) ), having been published in 2021.
References
- Maya Jaggi, 'Dispatches from the front', The Guardian, 2003.
- Fig.1: Standing Tombstone, The Exaltation Of The Flower (https://pixabay.com/photos/standing-tombstone-1165331/) by janeb13 (https://pixabay.com/users/janeb13-725943/) is licensed by Pixabay License (https://pixabay.com/service/license/)
- Fig.2: Soldiers fighting in a war (https://pixabay.com/photos/war-soldiers-marines-okinawa-battle-1172111/) by janeb13 (https://pixabay.com/users/janeb13-725943/) is licensed by Pixabay License (https://pixabay.com/service/license/)
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