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Plant Writing and the Imagination of Healing in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible
OU Baoyi
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.06.001
Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China
This article examines the plant writing in Barbara Kingsolver’s 1998 novel The Poisonwood Bible. It argues that Kingsolver’s plant writing presents a literary imagination of healing that addresses bodily illness, psychological trauma, and the pathologies of human civilization, through which she destabilizes colonial bias and anthropocentrism. By deconstructing the authority of Western medicine in colonial power structures, Kingsolver challenges the stigmatization of indigenous herbal medicine as backwardness and underscores its marginalized medical value. Furthermore, plants depicted in the novel are not passive objects as traditionally conceived, but agentive companion species with affective power that facilitates the healing of Orleanna’s trauma. Ultimately, Kingsolver questions the anthropocentrism in human civilization and constructs a vision of a vegetal democracy, as described by Michael Marder, featuring decentralization, non-hierarchical relations, and inclusiveness.
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver, plant writing
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