Barbara Kingsolver's
The Poisonwood Bible
The Book and the Author | Literacy Contexts | Historical and Political Background | Social and Cultural Contexts
Bell, Millicent. "Fiction Chronicle." Partisan Review
66 (1999): 417-430. PerAbs. FirstSearch. Milner Library,
Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP?sici=0031-2525%28199922%2966%3A3%3C417%3AFC%3E&dbname=PerAbs_FT>
Bromberg, Judith. "A Complex Novel about Faith, Family and Dysfunction.' National Catholic Reporter (19 Mar. 1999): 13. PerAbs. FirstSearch. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP?sici=0027-8939%2819990319%2935%3A20%3C13%3AACNAFF%3E&dbname=PerAbs_FT>
Byfield, Ted and Byfield, Virginia. "The Evil Missionary." Alberta Report (8 Feb. 1999): 35. Academic Search Elite. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?AN=1516079&db=afh&>
Campbell, Kim. "Barbara Kingsolver Gets Uncomfortable." Christian Science Monitor (19 Nov. 1998): 20. Academic Search Elite. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?AN=1287679&db=afh&>
Glazebrook, Olivia. "Abandoning the Code." Spectator (27 Feb. 1999): 37. PerAbs. FirstSearch. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP?sici=0038-6952%2819990227%29282%3A8899%3C37%3AATC%3E&dbname=PerAbs_FT>
Greene, Gayle. "Independence Struggle." Women's Review of Books 16 (1999): 8-9.
Hussein, Aamer. "Daughters of Africa." Times Literary Supplement (5 Feb. 1999): 21.
Kerr, Sarah. "The Novel as Indictment." New York Times Magazine (11 Oct. 1998): 6, 53.
Klinkenborg, Verlyn. "Going Native." New York Times Book Review (19 Oct. 1998): 7.
Leonard, John. "The Poisonwood Bible." Nation. (11/18 Jan. 1999): 28-30. PerAbs. FirstSearch. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP?sici=0027-8378%2819990111%2F18%29268%3A2%3C28%3ATPB%3E&dbname=PerAbs_FT>
Neely, Alan. "The Poisonwood Bible." International Bulletin of Missionary Research 24.3 (2000): 138. PerAbs. FirstSearch. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP?sici=0272-6122%28200007%2924%3A3%3C138%3ATPB%3E&dbname=PerAbs_FT>
"Questions about The Poisonwood Bible." 2001. HarperCollins Publishers. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.kingsolver.com/dialogue/poisonwood.html>
"Reader's Guide: The Poisonwood Bible." 2001. HarperCollins Publishers. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog/guide_xml.asp?isbn=0060175400>
Siegel, Lee. "Sweet and Low." New Republic (22 Mar. 1999): 30-37. PerAbs. FirstSearch. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP?sici=0028-6583%2819990322%29220%3A12%3C30%3ASAL%3E&dbname=PerAbs_FT>
Stafford, Tim. "Poisonous Gospel." Christianity Today (11 Jan. 1999): 88-90. PerAbs. FirstSearch. Milner Library, Illinois State Univ., Normal, Ill. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP?sici=0009-5753%2819990111%2943%3A1%3C88%3APG%3E&dbname=PerAbs_FT>
Van Arsdale, Ruth L. The Poisonwood Bible: Barbara Kingsolver:
Curriculum Unit. Rocky River, OH: Center for Learning,
c2000.
TMC 372.64 V217po
About Barbara Kingsolver
"Barbara Kingsolver." 2001. HarperCollins Publishers. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.kingsolver.com/>
Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Volume 60.
Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. 206-208.
Ref. Z 1224 .C622 Floor 6
Current Biography Yearbook. Volume 55. New York:
H. W. Wilson, 1994. 304-308.
Ref. CT 100 .C8201 Floor 2
DeMarr, Mary Jean. Barbara Kingsolver: A Critical Companion.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1999.
PS 3561 .I496 Z64 1999
Perry, Donna. Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out.
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1993. 143-69.
PS 151 .B33 1993 Floor 6
Quick, Susan Chamberlin. "Barbara Kingsolver: A Voice of the Southwest—An Annotated Bibliography." Bulletin of Bibliography 54 (1997): 283-302.
A Reader's Guide to the Fiction of Barbara Kingsolver: The Bean Trees,
Homeland and other Stories, Animal Dreams, Pigs in Heaven. Ed.
Jennifer Fleischner. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994.
Milner Library does not own.
Woods, Gioia. "Barbara Kingsolver." In Twentieth-Century American
Western Writers. Dictionary of Literary Biography. 206.
Columbia, SC: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1999. 180-190.
Ref. PS 128 .D5 v. 206 Floor 2
Black Jesus. Videocassette. Ivy Video.
c1997.
Based on actual incidents in the Congo, Woody Strode is a revolutionary
leader betrayed by one of his followers, and unwittingly martyred by those
in power. Throughout his interrogation and torture, we see the entire
horror of the confrontation reflected in his eyes.
Video VHS 0356 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Césaire, Aimé. A Season in the Congo: A Play.
New York: Grove Press, c1968.
PQ 3949 .C44 S213 1968 Floor 6
Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Viking, 1999.
PR 9369.3 .C58 D5 1999 Floor 6
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Various editions
available.
PR 6005 .O4 H4 Floor 6
Dinesen, Isak. Out of Africa; and, Shadows on the Grass.
New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
DT 433.54 .D56 1989 Floor 3
Greenland, Seth. Jungle Rot. New York: Dramatists
Play Service, c1997.
PS 3557 .R3952 J86 1997 Floor 6
Heart of Darkness. Videocassette. Turner Home Entertainment.
[1994].
Video VHS 0100 Media Resource Center Floor 6
The Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English. Oxford:
Heinemann, 1990.
PR 9346 .H45 1990 Floor 6
Jit. Videocassette. Home Vision. 1993.
The beat of jit-jive drives the story, set in Zimbabwe, of a fun-loving
youth called UK, who is determined to win the heart of Sofi, a stately
beauty closely guarded by her gangster boyfriend. UK's efforts are both
helped and hindered by Jukwa, a pesty ancestral spirit.
Video VHS 0289 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Keïta! l'héritage du griot = Keita!: The Heritage of
the Griot. Videocassette. California Newsreel. [1994?].
Based on one of the most important works of African oral literature,
the Sundjata epic. When a djéliba, a master griot or bard, arrives
mysteriously at the home of Mabo Keïta to teach him "the meaning of
his name," the boy and griot are inevitably brought into conflict with
his Westernized mother and schoolteacher, who have rejected African tradition.
The griot reveals to Mabo the story of his distant ancestor, Sundjata Keïta,
the 13th century founder of the great Malian trading empire.
Video VC 97 0206 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Lartéguy, Jean. Les chimères noires.
Paris: Presses de la cité, 1963.
PQ 2672 .A73 C4 Floor 6
Lopes, Henri. Tribaliks: Contemporary Congolese Stories.
London: Heinemann, 1987.
PQ 3989.2 L65 T713 1987 Floor 6
O'Brien, Conor Cruise. Murderous Angels: A Political Tragedy
and Comedy in Black and White. Boston: Little, Brown, 1968.
PR 6965 .B67 M8 Floor 6
Onwueme, Osonye Tess. Tell It To Women: An Epic Drama for Women.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.
PS 3565 .N85 T45 1997
Out of Africa. Videocassette. MCA Universal Home Video.
[1992].
The true story of Karen Blixen, a strong-willed woman who, with her
philandering husband, runs a coffee plantation in Kenya, circa 1914.
To her astonishment she soon discovers herself falling in love with the
land, its people and a mysterious white hunter.
Video VC 97 0024 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Swann, Brian. The House With No Door: African Riddle-Poems.
San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1998.
TMC 811 S972ho Floor 1
Tableau ferraille. Videocassette. California Newsreel
[distributor]. 1997.
Tells the story of an idealistic young politician's rise and fall.
Daam, a well-intentioned but vacillating European-trained politician, must
choose between two social paradigms exemplified by his two wives.
The film offers a view of how modernization, as practiced in today's Africa,
corrodes traditional communities and retards grassroots development.
Video VC 99 0242 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Theroux, Paul. On the Edge of the Great Rift: Three Novels
of Africa. London: Penguin, 1996.
PS 3570 .H4 O53 1996 Floor 6
When My Brothers Come Home: Poems from Central and Southern Africa.
Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press, 1985.
PR 9346 .W48 1985 Floor 6
Chinua Achebe. Videocassette. Films for the Humanities
& Sciences. c1994.
Bill Moyers interviews Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe who discusses
the West's often inaccurate portrayal of Africa and how it is the African
storyteller's obligation to be the collective memory of the African people.
Video VC 98 0011 Media Resource Center Floor 6
The Companion to African Literatures. Ed. Douglas Killam
and Ruth Rowe. Oxford: James Currey; Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2000.
Ref. PR 9340 .C65 2000 Floor 6
Martha's Attic: Masks, Magic, and Folklore. Videocassette.
Listening Library. 1986.
With the help of authentic masks, Martha Lambert tells stories and
shows a film about magic spirits from the African Congo. She then
explains the difference between a fairy tale, a folk tale, and a fable.
TMC VIDEOTAPE 398.2 M3975M Floor 1
Africa: A History Denied. Videocassette. Time-Life
Video and Television. c1995.
Because the white settlers of Africa couldn't believe that natives
were responsible for the once great kingdoms of Great Zimbabwe and the
Swahili Coast, these ancient cultures were either credited to wandering
Phoenicians, the Queen of Sheba or other white travelers. Now the place
where human history began is being reclaimed by descendants of those lost
cultures, and the glories of their accomplishments are revealed.
Video VC 96 0294 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Africa Before the Europeans, 100-1500. Videocassette.
Landmark Films. 1985.
Describes the civilizations and empires of Africa before the arrival
of the Europeans. Tells how the Bantu people left their homeland in the
Cameroons and displaced the people in the south.
Video VC 96 0329 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Afrique, je te plumerai = Africa, I'm Going to Fleece You.
Videocassette. California Newsreel. [1992].
A compelling and sardonic essay on the history of colonialism in Cameroon,
and by extension, on the African continent. Focuses on historical as well
as contemporary European cultural domination, particularly in the publishing
and media industry.
Video VC 97 0203 Media Resource Center Floor 6
"Background Note: Congo, Democratic Republic of." 2000. U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of African Affairs. 13 Aug. 2001. <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/bgn/index.cfm?docid=2823>
"Congo, Democratic Republic of the." World Factbook. U. S. Central Intelligence Agency. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cg.html>
"Congo-Zaire." Index on Africa. 2001. Norwegian Central Council for Africa. <http://www.afrika.no/index/Country_pages/Congo-Zaire/>
Cry Freedom. Videocassette. MCA Home Video.
1988.
Story of South Africa's Black activist Stephen Biko and a liberal white
newspaper editor Donald Woods who risks his own life to bring Biko's message
to the world.
Video VHS 0044 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Kyle, Keith. "The UN in the Congo." 2000. Incore. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/home/publication/occasional/kyle.html>
Lumumba: la mort du prophète = Death of a Prophet.
Videocassette. California Newsreel. 1992.
This film recounts Lumumba's 200 day rule culminating with his assassination.
Reveals how a weakened democratic movement succumbed to the only well-financed
and organized force in the country--the military.
Video VC 99 0243 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Odom, Thomas P. Dragon Operations: Hostage Rescues in the Congo,
1964-1965. Fort Leavenworth, Kan.: Combat Studies Institute,
U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1988.
DOC. D 110.9:14
Simba. Videocassette. Milestone Film & Video,
c1991.
Filmed in East Africa during the second Martin Johnson African Expedition,
1923-1928. Records Martin and Osa Johnson's expedition to East Africa,
the chief purpose of which was to capture on film rapidly disappearing
African wildlife as well as East African peoples (Samburu, Dorobo, etc.)
and their customs.
Video VC 97 0243 Media Resource Center Floor 6
You Can't Eat Potential: Breaking Africa's Cycle of Poverty.
Videocassette. Filmakers Library. c1996.
Focuses on Africa, south of the Sahara, the region of the world most
under threat of food shortages and where absolute poverty is increasing
at an alarming rate. Discusses policies which can avert a catastrophe
of unprecedented proportions.
Video VHS 0508 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Zaire: A Country Study. Ed. Sandra W. Meditz and Tim Merrill.
1994. Library of Congress Research Division. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/zrtoc.html>
Fage, J. D. An Atlas of African History. 2nd
ed. London: Edward Arnold, 1978.
G 2446 .S1 F3 1978a Floor 4
Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P. The New Atlas of African History.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
G 2446 .A1 F73 1991 Floor 4
Historical Atlas of Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1985.
Ref. G 2446 .A1 H5 1985 Floor 4
Horrabin, James Francis. An Atlas of Africa. New
York: Praeger, 1960.
G 2445 .H6 1960a Floor 4
Kasule, Samuel. The History Atlas of Africa. New
York: Macmillan, 1998.
G 2446 .S1 K3 1998 Floor 4
O.R.S.T.O.M. (Agency : France). Atlas du Congo. Paris:
Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-mer, 1969.
G 2621 .C1 F7 1969 Floor 4 Oversize Shelves
Philip's Modern College Atlas for Africa. 4th ed.
London: London Geographical Institute, 1963.
G 1019 .P5705 1963 Floor 4
United States. Central Intelligence Agency. Democratic Republic of
the Congo [map]. [Washington, D.C.?: CIA, 1998].
MAP DOC. PREX 3.10/4:D39 Floor 4 Maps
"Maps of Africa: The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection."
2001. University of Texas at Austin. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/africa.html>
"Democratic Republic of the Congo." 2001. Global
Statistics. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.xist.org/cd/cg.htm>
To search for additional material on the historical, economic, and
political background of the novel, the following subject headings may be
useful:
"Africa." The Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner.
New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1996.
Ref. N 31 .D5 1996 Floor 6
Africa, Between Myth and Reality: The Paintings and Etchings of Betty
LaDuke. Videocassette. Cinema Guild. [1997?]
Documents the art of Betty LaDuke, which is influenced by her ten years
of travel in Africa. Her experiences with village life, artist cooperatives
and artists have inspired her images, a composite of myth, magic and reality.
Video VC 98 0217 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Africa Close-up. Videocassette. Maryknoll World Productions.
[1997?]
Fifteen-year-old Samah Ibrahim Hussein shows us Islamic life in her
neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt, along with a tour of the Pyramids, the Sphinx
and the Nile River. Fifteen-year-old Bernard Bulemela of rural Tanzania,
East Africa, tells us about his people's struggle with desertification,
tree and water projects, the opening of a new well, and the teaching of
Kiswahili at his school.
TMC Videotape 960 A2584c Floor 1
African Art. Videocassette. Public Media Inc.
1995.
African Art introduces noted experts who explain the importance of
reappraising African art within its own cultural context. Then local Malian
inhabitants in the Dogon, a Bamana village, and the walled city of Djenne
comment on the function of art and the role of the artist in their society.
Video VHS 0443 Media Resource Center Floor 6
The Africans. Videocassette. The Annenberg/CPB Project;
Intellimation [distributor]. c1986.
A controversial examination of contemporary Africa in terms of its
triple heritage: what is indigenous, what was contributed by Islam, and
what was acquired from the West.
Video VC920107 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Art and Death in Africa. Videocassette. University
of Iowa Video Center. c1986-1988.
Shows African masks from Burkina Faso in West Africa as they are used
in ritual dances and explains their significance within the cultures.
Video VC 95 010 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Come Join Our Multicultural Band: Exploring Culture and Music.
Videocassette. Wagner's World of Music. c1994.
With the help of musical artists representing six different cultures,
Larry Wagner demonstrates their various musical heritages.
Video VC 95 0071 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Dagan, Esther A. Dance in Africa. Videocassette.
Gallery Amrad. c1987.
Video VC 97 0341 Media Resource Center Floor 6
The JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance. Videocassette.
Victor Company of Japan; Rounder Records [distributor]. 1990.
Video VC 92 0206 Media Resource Center Floor 6
The JVC Smithsonian Folkways Video Anthology of Music and Dance of
Africa. Victor Company of Japan; distributed by Multicultural
Media. c1996.
Video VC 96 0401 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Kubik, Gerhard. "Africa." New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. 2nd ed. 2000. Macmillan. 13 Aug. 2001 <http://www.grovemusic.com/grovemusic/script/article.asp?section=00268>
The Seven Ages of Music: The Magic of African Music. Videocassette.
Films for the Humanities & Sciences. c1992.
This production traces the evolution of Africa's music from the rattle
of drums by the light of a desert fire to modern pop sounds and jazz.
Video VC 94 0176 Media Resource Center Floor 6
White Hotel. Videocassette. Wake UP! Productions.
c1996.
When two women with a video camera follow an American HIV research
team to Eritrea, Africa they are seduced by a land of joy and repression,
of sensuality and sexual mutilation.
Video VHS 0755 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Mazrui, Ali Al'Amin. The Power of Babel: Language & Governance
in the African Experience. Oxford, England; Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1998.
P 381 .A35 M39 1998
Ng~ug~I wa Thiong'o. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language
in African Literature. London: Heinemann, 1986.
PL 8010 .N48 1986 Floor 6
Brookes, Edgar Harry. The City of God and the City of Man
in Africa. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1964.
DT 779.7 .B7 Floor 3
Gray, Richard. Black Christians and White Missionaries.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
BV 3520 .G72 1990
Groves, Charles Pelham. The Planting of Christianity in Africa.
4 vols. 1948-1958. London: Lutterworth Press, 1964.
276 G884P Storage
Hughes, W. Dark Africa and the Way Out, or, A Scheme for Civilizing
and Evangelizing the Dark Continent. 1892. New York: Negro
Universities Press, 1969.
BV 2093 .C66 H8 1969 Storage
The Land of Mystery, or, Scenes and Incidents in Central Africa.
Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1859.
DT 351 .L35 Special Collections Floor 6
God Gave Her a Mercedes Benz. Videocassette. Filmakers
Library. [1993?].
Documentary. Colorful markets of Africa are often
dominated by strong older women, who control prices and determine who can
buy their goods. These women are affectionately referred to as Mama Benz
because each onehas a chauffeured driven Mercedes Benz. This film focuses
on one woman who presides over the cloth market in Lomé, Togo.
Video VC 99 0307 Media Resource Center Floor 6
The Life and Times of Sara Baartman: "The Hottentot Venus."
Videocassette. First Run/Icarus Films. 1998.
A documentary film of the life a Khoikhoi woman who was taken from
South Africa in 1810 and exhibited as a freak across Britain. The image
and ideas for "The Hottentot Venus" (particularly the interest in
her sexual anatomy) swept through British popular culture. A court battle
waged by abolitionists to free her from her exhibitors failed. In 1814,
a year before her death, she was taken to France and became the object
of scientific research that formed the bedrock of European ideas about
black female sexuality.
Video VHS 0494 Media Resource Center Floor 6
Visages de femmes = Faces of Women. Videocassette.
New Yorker Video. c1995.
Politically and stylistically adventurous film exploring the links
between feminism, economics and tradition in modern-day Africa.
Video VC 96 0103 Media Resource Center Floor 6
With These Hands: How Women Feed Africa. Videocassette.
Filmakers Library, 1987.
Three women tell stories of the difficult lives in the farmlands of
Burkina Faso, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Video VC 93 0199 Media Resource Center Floor 6
