marry and live with Anatole, Kikongo indeed becomes a second language to her, and one that allows her to establish distance from her overpowering voice. She says of Nathan, father’s But the practice of speaking a rich, tonal language to my neighbors has softened his voice in my ear. I hear the undertones now that shimmer under the surface of the words right and We used to be baffled by Kikongo words with so many different meanings: wrong. for and and also That one word bängala, most precious most insufferable poisonwood. brought down every time, as he ended them all with the shout Father’s sermons “Tata Jesus is (Kingsolver, 504-5). bängala!” Poisonwood Speaking Kikongo has instilled a sense of multiplicity and subjectivity in Leah, and this newfound sensitivity to language affords her the opportunity to reflect on the radical ignorance with which her father once spoke to the villagers in Kilanga. Using Kikongo to subvert Western authority in is perhaps The Poisonwood Bible greatest strength, as the incorporation of this Congolese language directs attention Kingsolver’s towards the culture to which Kingsolver seeks to do justice. This register gains its subversive tone in a number of ways; Orleanna, Leah, and Adah note the ironies that accompany Nathan’s misuse of Kikongo, they point to the differences between harsh sounds and Nathan’s Kikongo’s pleasant, musical quality, and they discover and elucidate a subjectivity present in the Kikongo language that reflects a more general subjectivity that Nathan fails to grasp. *** In the above chapter I have focused on three subversive linguistic registers—the inversion register, the guilt register, and the Kikongo register. These three registers constitute the core of efforts to problematize dominant Western discourses in her novel and to Kingsolver’s construct a new, liberating rhetoric. Whereas the first chapter discusses those registers that
marry and live with Anatole, Kikongo indeed becomes a second language to her, and one that allows her to establish distance from her father’s overpowering voice. She says of Nathan, But the practice of speaking a rich, tonal language to my neighbors has softened his voice in my ear. I hear the undertones now that shimmer under the surface of the words right and wrong. We used to be baffled by Kikongo words with so many different meanings: bängala, for most precious and most insufferable and also poisonwood. That one word brought down Father’s sermons every time, as he ended them all with the shout “Tata Jesus is bängala!” (Kingsolver, Poisonwood 504-5). Speaking Kikongo has instilled a sense of multiplicity and subjectivity in Leah, and this newfound sensitivity to language affords her the opportunity to reflect on the radical ignorance with which her father once spoke to the villagers in Kilanga. Using Kikongo to subvert Western authority in The Poisonwood Bible is perhaps Kingsolver’s greatest strength, as the incorporation of this Congolese language directs attention towards the culture to which Kingsolver seeks to do justice. This register gains its subversive tone in a number of ways; Orleanna, Leah, and Adah note the ironies that accompany Nathan’s misuse of Kikongo, they point to the differences between Nathan’s harsh sounds and Kikongo’s pleasant, musical quality, and they discover and elucidate a subjectivity present in the Kikongo language that reflects a more general subjectivity that Nathan fails to grasp. *** In the above chapter I have focused on three subversive linguistic registers—the inversion register, the guilt register, and the Kikongo register. These three registers constitute the core of Kingsolver’s efforts to problematize dominant Western discourses in her novel and to construct a new, liberating rhetoric. Whereas the first chapter discusses those registers that