M. Butterfly : a Poststructuralist Approach

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M. Butterfly a Poststructuralist Approach

• Image Society Q A
• as metatheatre as parody
• 3) role play 1) power relations 2) identity
  construction 3) fiction and history
• 4) Orientalism and the other discourses in the
  play MB as a self-deconstructing play

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Image Society Q A

• Why are we surrounded or bombarded by images?
  How is this related to postmodernism,
  poststructuralism and postmodernity?
• What are the consequences of the domination of
  images?
• Do you agree with my interpretation of The Living
  Mall?
• 4. Do you think that a pastiche like Moulin
  Rouge is a-historical or merely spectacular?
  How about Losing My Religion?

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M. Butterfly as metatheatre

• "Metatheatre" is a convenient name for the
  quality or force in a play which challenges
  theatre's claim to be simply realistic -- to be
  nothing but a mirror in which we view the actions
  and sufferings of characters like ourselves,
  suspending our disbelief in their reality.
  (source) (more definition of metafiction)

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metatheatre

• Marks those frames and boundaries that
  conventional dramatic realism would hide.
• ? we are forced to acknowledge the estranging
  frame, or break the frame of the "fourth wall" of
  conventional theatre, reaching out to assault the
  
  audience or to draw it into the realm of the
  play
• ? Thus calls attention to the strangeness,
  artificiality, illusoriness, or arbitrariness of
  theatre and also the life we live in (source)

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M. Butterfly metatheatrical elements?

• Direct address to the audiencepp. 4 7 9
• Stage direction
• 1) mixing of the Chinese and western elements
• p. 1 elements of Chinese opera Sc 9 the
  ending
• 2) Multiple space multiple text/power relations
  e.g. 57
• 3) costume change pp. 14 ? role-play
• Characters as (writers and) performers
• Pinkerton -- Gallimard, Marc Sharpless
• Chin Suzuki Song Cio-Cio Sang

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M. Butterfly metatheatrical elements?

• Purposes of the meta aspects
• ? Life as performances of different roles
  (subject position provided by discourses) which
  are defined in terms of each other.
• -- Madame Butterfly performed and adapted to his
  version of the story. The problem is that he is
  not the only author.
• -- conflicting versions of history --in the
  play and in history.
• ? Critique of Butterfly a stereotype of
  Oriental woman

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M. Butterfly a critical parody of Orientalism
(definition)

• examples of Westerner view of the Chinese
• Helga pp. 18 old MB martial art
• Gallimards gaining power p. 36 38 his
  inside knowledge 45
• parody of Madame Butterfly?
• MB included (e.g. 5-8 13 42 ) and then
  criticized p. 10 or revised (p. 66 p. 84 )
• more subtle criticism Juxtaposition of Love
  Duet and girlie magazine pp. 11- Song by the
  window 25 p. 41

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Roles Difference

• Why do the characters take roles which are
  opposite to each other?
• -- Vive la différence! p. 4 bad defined in
  relation to good man defined in relation to
  woman.
• Why does Song takes the role after criticizing
  it?
• -- discrepancies between rhetoric and realities
  59
• -- a matter of role-play.
• -- very few of us would pass up the opportunity
  to be Pinkerton. (42)

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Binary OppositesG/Marc vs. Women

• 1) Womanizer Marc pp. 8-9 24-25 pp. 32-33
• 2) Western womenstrong or not lovable Helga,
  Isabelle p. 32-33, Renee 54-
• 3) Oriental woman submissive pleasing the
  Other to help define the self.

Man Sexy, desirable woman Wimp
Sexy, desirable woman Wimp (G) Oriental Woman
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Binaries Relativized (1)
Madame Chrysanthemum

• 1) Mutual definition of roles.
• Madame Butterfly
• While G is gaining power, he needs encouragement.

Man (Pinkerton) Practical woman (Suzuki)
Man conscientious Sharpless) Oriental Woman
Man (M) Girlie magazine Wimp (G)
Sexy, desirable woman Wimp (G) Oriental Woman
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Binaries Relativized (2) Switching Roles Gs
power vs. Songs power

• 1) Song anti-Orientalism
• Gallimard attracted (like and dislike MB),
  
• sees Song as sour grape p. 19
• 2) Song Western distanced from her culture.
  
• Gallimard aware of imperialism distanced
  from his values
• 3) Song But sometimes . . . (p. 22)
• G feel able to flirt ? power relations
• 4) Song Do you forgive me? p. 26

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Role PlayG vs. Song (2)

• 5) Gs thirst intensified p. 27
• Songs role as Oriental woman 1) Anna May
  Wong inferiority complex pp. 27-28
• as a Chinese girl 31
• 6) Gs eight-week torture of Song and his
  ascension to power pp. 31 (Toulon as God)
• 7) Intrusion of comrade Chin 47
• 8) Discussion of infertility p. 50

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Power Relativized Subverted
1. While Song is re-gaining his power he
continues and exaggerates the role of Oriental
woman. (p. 51 65 - 66) 2. G When G wants to
gain more power (p. 54 ) --not from Renee but
from Song-- he actually loses it.(56)
Man (M) Sexy, desirable woman (Renee) Wimp
Sexy, desirable woman Wimp (G) Oriental Woman
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Power Plays the play of signifiers

• No one has absolute power. Power has to be
  confirmed by those subordinate to it, or by
  chances in reality.
• e.g. Toulons test of Gallimard. P. 57
• Gallimard goes back to Song after being denied by
  Renee and Toulon in turns.
• Butterfly as the weakest becomes an empty sign
  of power (like the purloined letter whose content
  is not important.)

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Identity Construction Roles Clothes Identity?

• Costume change on the stage 9, 14, 86-87
• 2) Renee We fight wars because we wear clothes.
  P. 55 ? We assume different positions of power.
• 2) Kimono yahoo 59
• 3) Gallimard not undressing Song. 60
• -- Is there truth underneath clothes? Or is
  clothing a part of identity?
• -- Does Gallimard turns to really love Song at
  the end of Scene 6. Whats the something new,
  something unnatural, . . . Something very close
  to love?

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Competing Versions of Fiction

• G as an author p. 4
• 2) Song ironic overtones pp. 30 41 51 63
• 3) Songs intrusion pp. 47(scene 4) 63 (Scene
  7),67, 78-79
• 4) Final switching of roles
• -- theatre of China 85
• -- stripping to take another role? a man, and
  not just a man. ? your fantasy ? Butterfly?
  Butterfly?

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History and Fiction Official history

• The storyset in 1960-1970 in Beijin
• 1966 - (1968)-- 1986 in Paris
• Why? Connecting sexual politics to
• (Inter-)national politics ? time of war and
  revolutions
• Traces of public history in M. Butterfly
• -- the play of power between Toulon and Gallimard
  (Toulon being the God?transcendental
  signifier)
• -- e.g. changes of power of Comrade Chin Scene 10
  11 (Chairman Mao)

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History and Fiction Official history

• Historical Background ? the subversion of several
  authorities
• -- Cultural revolution -- 1966-1976 fixed roles
• -- Vietnam War
• History 1860 French colonization started,
  followed by Japan during WWII
• After WWII 1955 France fought hard to regain
  their former territories without success.
• 1954-- the country divided into North and South

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History and Fiction Official history

• 1955 -- the U.S.s involvement
• 1961-- support forces arriving since then,
• Nov. 1963-- President Diem overthrown and
  executed.
• 1965 -- US intense bombing started,
• 1969 -- USs withdrawal started,
• 1973 total withdrawal
• May 1975 -- the fall of Saigon.
• France May 68 France's month of revolution --
  a week of clashes there between extreme right
  wing groups and students campaigning against the
  Vietnam War. (More strikes and demonstration
  followed)

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History and Fiction (2) historical figures

• History of Bernard Bouriscot and Shi Peipu
  differences from M. Butterfly (source 20/20)
• -- Six months after their friendship, Shi Peipu
  said he was not the man he appeared to be, but
  was a woman in disguise as a man.
• -- BB no previous sexual experience
• -- BB stayed in China twice left China in 1966,
  went back four years later to search for Shi and
  their son.
• -- because he was obsessed with being able to
  continue to see Peipu, Bernard began smuggling
  secret documents out of the French embassy and
  bringing them to the two Communist Party
  officials. (in China)

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History and Fiction

• History of Bernard Bouriscot and Shi Peipu
  differences from M. Butterfly
• -- called back to France. He had affairs with
  women, but he also realized he was sexually
  attracted to men.
• -- 1982, Shi visited Paris with his son.
• -- 1986 caught because of their spy acts.

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History and Fiction (4) Bs version

• BERNARD BOURSICOT And instead of beating him, I
  told, But I want to see. And he told, Oh, it
  does not matter, no problem. And he took his
  pants down and he told me, You can see. And a
  week after, I wanted to die, because I was
  thinking, Okay, now I am not only a prisoner,
  not only a spy, but a foolish person.
• B . . . there is the theory that you were
  homosexual all those years ago, but couldn't face
  it, and so you allowed yourself to be deceived.
  How do you answer that?
• BERNARD BOURSICOT It is possible, but it's not
  the sole explanation.

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History and Fiction (5) Ps versopm

• BARBARA WALTERS Just a friend?
• SHI PEIPU (through interpreter) Of course.
• BARBARA WALTERS Nothing more?
• SHI PEIPU (through interpreter) Yes, but there
  is no use talking about it. It's over. It's
  over.
• BARBARA WALTERS How did you meet Monsieur
  Boursicot?
• SHI PEIPU (through interpreter) I have
  forgotten, and besides, I don't speak about him
  anymore.
• BARBARA WALTERS Did you ever tell Monsieur
  Boursicot that you were a woman?
• SHI PEIPU (through interpreter) He said that?
  I don't think so. I'm not crazy like that.

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Orientalism

• "Orientalism is a Western style for dominating,
  reconstructing and having authority over the
  Orient" (E. Said Orienatalism Introduction 3).
  It is supported by a large group of discourses
  ranging from travelogue, letters to academic
  studies. Its constructions of the Orient are
  usually stereotypical.

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Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.from The
Thief of Bagdad (United Artists, 1924).
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References

• THE STRANGEST LOVE STORY OF ALL - THE REAL M
  BUTTERFLY. Program script. ABCs 20/20,
  segment 02. Anchor Barbara Walters. Date Aug
  12, 1994.

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Assignments for next week

• Finish M. Butterfly if you have not.
• 2. . Lecture 2 Theory Examples
  anti-foundationalism metafiction (to the
  section before Icicle Thief)
• 3. Lecture 3 Theory Examples2. F. Jameson