Poisonwood Bibliography

I enjoy playing with the title of the book far too much, but that's not the point.

I will admit, assembling these sources took more time than I thought it would, and I'll probably find a few more just because more sources would be great for the paper, but here are the sources and thesis I have right now.

Working Thesis: Although The Poisonwood Bible is hailed as a masterpiece of historical criticism of the United State's relationship with the Congo, its core theme is actually that of paradox, balance, and disparity within each individual's life.

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. Harper-Flamingo Publishing, New York, 1998. [Primary Source]


Slade, Ruth. The Belgian Congo. Oxford University Press, New York, 1961

It took me a while to find this in the actual library after finding it in the catalog (I've never been down to the first floor of the library and got kinda lost at first), but this one's really helpful because it was written as the events in The Poisonwood Bible take place, so it's a very helpful study of the paradox of an African nation being ruled by a European monarch that was written right after said nation's downfall.


Cook, Roy T. Paradoxes. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2013

This is an ebook listed on the catalog that is exactly what I was looking for. It gives a detailed analysis of the philosophy of the paradox, as well as insights into how there are different kinds of paradoxes and how they can be found in society.


Salvatore, Anne T. "Against Platonic Authority: Collective Vs. Absolute Truth In Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible."CLA Journal 51.2 (2007): 155-169. 

This is a peer-reviewed article I found on the Academic Search Premier that is direct analysis and criticism of the text. Its discussion about the paradox of truth and the disparity between collective and absolute knowledge will be extremely helpful when analyzing each of the individuals and how their reactions to the collective truth of their environment show their inner balances and paradoxes in their behavior.


Jeanna Fuston White. "The One-Eyed Preacher, His Crooked Daughter, and Villagers Waving Their Stumps: Barbara Kingsolver’s Use of Disability in The Poisonwood Bible." South Central Review 26.3 (2009)

I will admit that I had to use Google Scholar for this one as well as the next, as the ASP wasn't yielding any more helpful sources. This is an article analyzing how Kingsolver portrays many different characters with disabilities in The Poisonwood Bible. These disabilities are one of the best examples of paradoxes in the text; for example, the character Mama Mwanza, who does not have the use of her legs, is more competent and can work harder than Orleanna Price, the mother of the Price family who tries her best to adapt to living in the Congo.


Altmaier, Catherine, "The Gospel of Cosmopolitanism: Conflict Resolution in Barbara Kingsolver's Fiction" (2006). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 439.

This is the other source that I used Google Scholar for. It's a master's thesis written by a student at Western Kentucky University that analyzes conflicts and resolutions in Kingsolver's various works, and there's a section on the relationships between the Price daughters and their father. Conflict is a very important aspect of disparity, and the resolution of it brings new balance to the characters and their relationships.


I'm not entirely sure what I'll actually title my paper yet, but I'll figure that out as the scope of the paper begins to take shape.