Dialogue on the conflict between religious fundamentalism and women's rights is often stymied by an "all or nothing" approach: fundamentalists rely on a claim of absolute religious freedom, while some feminists have dismissed religion entirely as being so imbued with patriarchy as to be eternally opposed to women's rights. This ignores the experiences of religious women who suffer under fundamentalism and fight to resist it, perceiving themselves to be at once religious and feminist. In "Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women," Howland provides a forum for these different...

Dialogue on the conflict between religious fundamentalism and women's rights is often stymied by an 'all or nothing' approach: fundamentalists claim of absolute religious freedom, while some feminists dismiss religion entirely as being so imbued with patriarchy as to be eternally opposed to women's rights. This ignores, though, the experiences of religious women who suffer under fundamentalism and fight to resist it, perceiving themselves to be at once religious and feminist. In Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women, Howland provides a forum for these different scholars,...

Drawing upon gender studies, musicology, German studies, and literary theory, the author develops a feminist analytic framework for interpreting opera and for critiquing the usual interpretations of opera, using Richard Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander as a case study. The feminist analysis, in contrast to prior interpretations of Hollander, identifies the intersection of gender and religion as at the core of the opera's main woman character, Senta. This analysis allows for recognition of Senta's power and moral agency and demonstrates that the theory of interpretation rather than the opera...