Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)
Studies - András Tarnóc: "we deserve a Butterfly ": The Reversal of the Post-colonial Self in David Henry Hwang 's M. Butterfly
Eastern women: submission, lack of imagination, and inhibition are defiantly rejected by Gallimard as Song calls him to task: "I am pure imagination. And in imagination I will remain" (2868). Ill At the beginning of the drama Gallimard appeared as a Western diplomat, a stereotypical representative of European culture possessing all the prejudicial images and ethnocentric concepts imbued by his education and upbringing. He was obsessed with the Far East, a land he only knew through stereotypes as he did not maintain any direct contact with the Chinese or other Asian people. While he categorizes all non-European cultures as the exotic Other and he enters the drama as the dominant one, he ends up in the position of the muted. In fact his personalities: Gallimard, Gallimard—Pinkerton, and Gallimard- Cho Cho San are parts of a continuum representing this process. Gallimard functions at the spatial dimension of the home marginalizing all non-European cultures, Gallimard —Pinkerton enters the temporal dimension partaking in the public myth of Madame Butterfly enabling him to act out his private fantasy as the American officer. Gallimard as Cho Cho San enters the virtual dimension or third space, the zone in which the post-colonial Self is prevalent. For Gallimard "Being in Itself' means the acceptance of the European male experience, "Being for Others" is strictly limited to Westerners, and "Being in the World" connotes domination. Galllimard as Pinkerton continues in the same mold in the "Being in Itself' stage, and in his "Being for Others" the racial and sexual Other appears. The fulfillment of his desires is hindered by contemporary restrictions placed on the relationship between colonial and colonizer. It is ironic that Gallimard as Cho Cho San finds his true home in the virtual third space as his Historicized Self is characterized by victimization, his "Being for Others" includes the racial and sexual Other of the opposing end of the spectrum, and "Being in the World" in her case translates to the acceptance of the deception and the achievement of internal peace he always strove for. The final cruel irony is that he pays an enormous price for the realization of his 106
