Kovalenko Ekaterina Vitalyevna – a postgraduate student of the foreign literature department, Donetsk State University. ORCID: 0009-0000-1673-7259
This article analyses biblical motifs in Pat Barker’s novel Regeneration. The narrative is structured around two central biblical themes: the Binding of Isaac (the Akedah) and the sacrificial figure of Christ. Both are intertwined with the leitmotif of abandonment by the father – or forsakenness by God – that permeates the novel. Biblical imagery, including Armageddon, Golgotha, the Crucifixion, suffering, and kenosis, is mapped onto the fate of a generation sacrificed in the slaughter of the First World War. In this way, war is portrayed not merely as a historical event but as a timeless phenomenon – a tragedy that challenges the fundamental principles of human existence.
Pat Barker Regeneration; Biblical imagery; World War I; the soldier-Christ; Golgotha; kenosis; Siegfried Sassoon.