Diversity in Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible"

This thesis explores concepts of narration, characterization, and intertextuality in Barbara Kingsolver "The Poisonwood Bible." The narrative in this novel is divided between five different narrators, and I examine how these narrators are in dialog with each other. As Kingsolver calls her novel a political allegory, I also examine whether the narrators can be placed within an allegorical taxonomy. Moreover, I look into how the novel is in dialog with other texts. I my discussion of intertextuality, I explore how Emily Dickinson s Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant, William Carlos Williams s A Red Wheelbarrow, Joseph Conrad s "Heart of Darkness" and Chinua Achebe s "Things Fall Apart" are integrated in "The Poisonwood Bible." I also apply Achebe s criticism of "Heart of Darkness" to "The Poisonwood Bible." I study "The Poisonwood Bible" as a polyphonic text, and refer to Bakthin s ideas of dialogism throughout my thesis