Postcolonialism, Feminism and Religious Discourse

Laura E. Donaldson is Associate Professor in the English Department at Cornell University. She is the author of Decolonizing Feminisms: Race, Gender, and Empire Building (1992). Kwok Pui-Lan is William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School. She is the author of Introducing Asian FeministTheology (2000).

"Reaching across a broad range of religious traditions and diverse disciplines, this splendid collection of essays breaks new ground in bringing postcolonial insights to a study of gender and religion. Equally important, the volume also compels postcolonial studies to take note of religion's role in sustaining colonial ideologies. The individual essays offer absorbing case studies about the power of religious discourse in containing feminist aspirations, while, in other instances, providing a liberatory ethics. Collectively, the contributors to Postcolonialism, Feminism, and Religious Discourse boldly advance our understanding of how a feminist politics for the future is inseparable from a decolonization of religious ideologies." -- Gauri Viswanathan, Columbia University, author of Outside the Fold: Conversion,Modernity, and Belief"A path-breaking collection of essays that deserves a wide readership. This multicultural and multireligious anthology advocates a radical epistemological shift and opens up a new direction of research not only in religious studies but also in women's and postcolonial studies. A must read for anyone interested in emancipatory theory, ethics, and religion." -- Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School"This collection of essays opens up a new direction in postcolonial studies as well as in women's studies in religion. Until recently feminist scholars who are interested in postcolonialism widely ignored the importance of religion to the sex/gender systems in the context of colonialism. At the same time, postcolonial studies of religion have hardly included the gender perspective. This gap is partly filled now...Authors from various religions, cultural and academic backgrounds share their critiques of the way religious and feminist knowledge is constructed as well as new and more productive visions for the development of discourses of liberation which no longer justify racism, sexism and colonialism." -- Theology in Context

• Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part One: Challenging Feminist Religious Discourse; 1. The Breasts of Columbus: A Political Anatomy of Postcolonialism and Feminist Religious Discourse, Laura E. Donaldson; 2. Unbinding Our Feet: Saving Brown Women and Feminist Religious Discourse, Kwok Pui-lan; 3. Sartorial Fabric-ations: Enlightenment and Western Feminism, Meyda Yegenoglu; 4. Postcoloniality, Feminist Spaces, and Religion, Musa W. Dube; Part Two: Rethinking Texts and Traditions; 5. The Prostitute's Gold: Women, Religion, and Sanskrit in One Corner of India, Laurie L. Patton; 6. Multiple Critique: Islamic Feminist Rhetorical Strategies, Miriam Cooke; 7. Letting Go of Liberalism: Feminism and the Emancipation of the Jews, Laura Levitt; 8. Body, Representation, and Black Religious Discourse, M. Shawn Copeland; Selected Bibliography; Contributors; Index