The Masculine and the Abject: Defiance of the Stereotypical Orient in M. Butterfly
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Scholars have various approaches to David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly. Some focus on the stereotypical racial images or the reversal of such images within the play (Moy 1990; San Juan 2002; Skloot 1990; Wen 2013). Others analyze the text or its characters using critical or psychoanalytical theories (Deeney 1993; Remen 1994). Still others such as Karen Shimakawa attempt to incorporate critical theory to analyze the cultural aspect of the play, claiming that Song, as national abject, possesses constructed femininity and equally constructed masculinity that is imposed upon him (Shimakawa 2002). While I agree with Shimakawa that M. Butterfly is a story of the masculine power struggle between men on individual and national levels, I do not see Song’s masculinity as untrue and forced upon him. Gallimard’s and Western power domination fantasy ultimately fails when Song threatens the realm of the Western man through his masculine attitude and actual gender. In this paper, I examine the femininity that Song Liling as a cultural abject mimics in order to consciously deconstruct the myth of Western masculinity re-establishment, and question the white norm that Otherizes races that are not white-American.
Abstract
Scholars have various approaches to David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly. Some focus on the stereotypical racial images or the reversal of such images within the play (Moy 1990; San Juan 2002; Skloot 1990; Wen 2013). Others analyze the text or its characters using critical or psychoanalytical theories (Deeney 1993; Remen 1994). Still others such as Karen Shimakawa attempt to incorporate critical theory to analyze the cultural aspect of the play, claiming that Song, as national abject, possesses constructed femininity and equally constructed masculinity that is imposed upon him (Shimakawa 2002). While I agree with Shimakawa that M. Butterfly is a story of the masculine power struggle between men on individual and national levels, I do not see Song’s masculinity as untrue and forced upon him. Gallimard’s and Western power domination fantasy ultimately fails when Song threatens the realm of the Western man through his masculine attitude and actual gender. In this paper, I examine the femininity that Song Liling as a cultural abject mimics in order to consciously deconstruct the myth of Western masculinity re-establishment, and question the white norm that Otherizes races that are not white-American.
참고문헌 (13)
- Deeney, John J., "Of Monkeys and Butterflies: Transformation in MH Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey and D. H. Hwang's M. Butterfly", Melus, 18(4), pp.21~39 (1993)
- Eng, David L., "Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America" (2001), Duke UP
- Hwang, David Henry, "M. Butterfly" (1988), Dramatists Play Service
- Kristeva, Julia, "Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection" (1982), Columbia UP
- Lauretis, Teresa, "Figures of Resistance Essays in Feminist Theory", pp.118~148 (2007), U of Illinois P
- Moskowitz, David A., "The Influence of Physical Body Traits and Masculinity on Anal Sex Roles in Gay and Bisexual Men", Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(4), pp.835~841 (2011)
- Moy, James S, "David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly and Philip Kan Gotanda's Yankee Dawg You Die: Repositioning Chinese American Marginality on the American Stage", Theatre Journal, 42(1), pp.48~56 (1990)
- Remen, Kathryn, "The Theatre of Punishment: David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly and Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish", Modern Drama, 37(3), pp.391~400 (1994)
- Said, Edward W., "Orientalism" (1979), Vintage
- San Juan, E., Jr., "Symbolic Violence and the Fetishism of the Sublime: A Metacommentary on David Hwang's M. Butterfly", Journal of Intercultural Studies, 23(1), pp.33~46 (2002)
- Shimakawa, Karen, "National Abjection: the Asian American Body Onstage" (2002), Duke UP
- Skloot, Robert, "Breaking the Butterfly: The Politics of David Henry Hwang", Modern Drama, 33(1), pp.59~66 (1990)
- Wen, Songfeng, "The Subversion of the Oriental Stereotype in M. Butterfly", English Language and Literature Studies, 3(2), pp.44~49 (2013)