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Captivity and Conflict: a Study of Gender, Genre, and Religious Others

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Captivity and Conflict: a Study of Gender, Genre, and Religious Others CAPTIVITY AND CONFLICT: A STUDY OF GENDER, GENRE, AND RELIGIOUS OTHERS A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Holly R. Gorman May, 2015 Examining Committee Members: Laura Levitt, Advisory Chair, TU Department of Religion Rebecca Alpert, TU Department of Religion Zain Abdullah, TU Department of Religion David H. Watt, TU Department of History Lila Corwin Berman, External Member, TU Department of History © Copyright 2015 by Holly R. Gorman All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT This project considers questions of religious othering in the contemporary United States through the lens of popular post-religious narratives. These narratives salaciously depict mistreated women in order to demarcate certain religions as deviant; authors and pundits then use these narratives in order to justify outside intervention in specific religious communities. By closely analyzing a selection of contemporary narratives written about women from Muslim and fundamentalist Mormon communities with special attention to both the feminist enactments and tropes of captivity which permeate these texts, this project challenges simplistic portrayals of religious Others. In doing so, the analysis draws the reader’s attention to the uncanny imitations in many of these texts: in arguing that certain religions “capture” their female adherents, authors of contemporary captivity narratives silence the voices of women whose stories they seek to illuminate. The dissertation also explores the ambivalent content of many of these narratives. When read against the grain, captivity literature offers surprising opportunities for nuanced explorations of religion, gender and agency. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No project is possible in a vacuum, and this project is no exception. I am extremely grateful to the following people for their intellectual and emotional support over the past five and a half years. First, Laura Levitt, my advisor, pushed me, held me accountable, and made me rewrite everything I sent her multiple times. She encouraged me to embrace the messiness of scholarship; I can honestly say that I am a better writer and a better scholar because of her. In Rebecca Alpert, I found a sympathetic and supportive mentor and conversation partner; she is an amazing teacher, and I am proud to have learned from her. I learned more about the study of religion as a discipline from taking a class in Department of History with David Watt than I did anywhere else during my time at Temple. Zain Abdullah provided me with extremely incisive feedback on early drafts on my chapters on Nujood Ali and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Lila Berman served as an enthusiastic outside reader, and I thank her especially for her useful insights about the uncanny and the dangers of Cheryl Sandberg feminism. Others at Temple have also been instrumental in my success. Linda Jenkins is amazing, and was a huge help in taking care of all of the little administrative thigns that I couldn’t do from a distance. Members of the Women’s Study Research Seminar read ugly drafts of my work, providing not only invaluable feedback, but also encouragement that my project was something that other people would also be interested in. Many of my colleagues became friends. Fellow WRAGers Vishma Kunu, Ermine Algaier, Ed Godfrey, and Kin Cheung helped me stay accountable and on track as I slogged through exam prep and the writing process. Thanks to Kelly Becherer for iv introducing me to God’s Brothel; reading that book solidified my interest in studying captivity literature. Tricia Way gets a special thank you for helping me get through the final push of dissertation writing and talking me off a ledge when I was faced with yet another rewrite for Laura. Vinnie Moulton, Ross Hennessy, Brett Krutzsch, Trish Kolbe, Elliott Ratzman, Amy Defibaugh, Patrick Denehy, John Dyck, Scott Strednak Singer and Adam Valerio helped make graduate school worthwhile. Hannah Mayne was a great writing partner as I negotiated doing work away from my Temple support network. Beyond academia, Heather Coutts and Suzanne Wright were great housemates during my years in Philadelphia. Thanks for the gossip sessions, the gardening, and the weekly dinners, all of which helped me stay sane. My parents offered their unconditional love and support. Aunt Eileen carefully read an early draft of my Mormonism chapters, and gave me much-needed pep talks along the way. My siblings, Ivy and Tom, talked to me about everything except my dissertation. Thank you also to my many friends who called and visited as I adjusted to life first in Philadelphia and then in Chicago: Sarah, Eli, Amy, Alice, Kaitlyn, Allison, Erin, Travis, Abby, and Erica. Finally, I am so lucky in calling Aaron Pancost my partner. Not only did he take care of things like making dinner and walking the dog when I felt overwhelmed by my project, he was also an invaluable reader, rewriting my passive voice and challenging me to state things as simply as possible. He was, however, unsuccessful at getting me to purge “imbricate” from my vocabulary. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................. iv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: TEXTS AND CONTEXTS ......................................................... 1 Context: Secular Positions and the “Clash of Civilization” ................................... 7 Text: The Political Implications of Language ..................................................... 11 Reflexivity: Locating Myself.............................................................................. 18 Chapter Outline .................................................................................................. 21 PART I LENSES OF ANALYSIS: GENDER AND GENRE ..................................................... 29 2. DEFINING FEMINISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGIOUS WOMEN ............................................................................................ 30 Liberal Feminism ............................................................................................... 33 Liberal Feminism and the Study of Religion: Reclaiming Religion as Feminist ....................................................................................................... 38 Illiberal Results of Liberal Feminism ................................................................. 45 Reconfigurations: Redefining Feminism through the Study of Religious Women ........................................................................................................ 52 Breaking Down Binaries .................................................................................... 58 3. THE TROPES OF CAPTIVITY .............................................................................. 6 0 Overview of Historical Examples ....................................................................... 65 Genre Overview: Politics and Poetics ................................................................. 6 8 Tropes of Captivity ............................................................................................ 73 vi Capture .................................................................................................. 73 Suffering in Barbaric Wilderness .................................................. .......... 79 Held against One’s Will.......................................................................... 84 Redemption: escapes and the Victims for Whom They Speak ................... 86 The Captive’s Position: Both / And .................................................................... 89 PART II CLOSE READING OF TEXT ....................................................................................... 92 4. CONSTRUCTING THE AUTHENTIC VICTIM: I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED BY NUJOOD ALI WITH DELPHINE MINOUI ........................ 93 I am Nujood: An Overview ................................................................................ 97 Constructing Nujood’s Voice ........................................................................... 100 Child Marriage as Captivity ............................................................................. 106 Foreign Signals: Victims are Over There .......................................................... 111 Narrative Occlusios: Shortcomings of the Authentic Mask ............................... 118 Interventions and their Shortcomings: The Draw of Human Rights .................. 121 The Fraught Question of Giving Women a Voice ............................................. 125 5. FEMINIST HEROINES: THE ESCAPPES OF ANDREA MOORE- EMMETT’S GOD’S BROTHEL ............................................................................ 127 Textual Overview............................................................................................. 131 Starting Assumptions: The Dangers of Polygamy ............................................. 133 Clamining Feminism ........................................................................................ 140 Tropes of Captivity .......................................................................................... 150 The Opposition of Religion and Feminsim ....................................................... 155 Creating a Unified Image ................................................................................
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