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

European women with pin-up girls and Asian ones with lotus blossoms. Furthermore, not only the Chinese, but the French as well are viewed in the form of stereotypes, suffice to refer to the jeering public comments about Gallimard's affair "Well, I thought the French were ladies' men" (2825). Helga, Gallimard's wife also thinks of other non-Europeans, Australians, in stereotypical terms: "My father was an ambassador to Australia. I grew up among criminals and kangaroos" (2830). Also, Renee "a schoolgirl who would question the role of the penis in modern society" (2852) objectifies Gallimard as she openly deconstructs the primary signifier of manhood: "...it just hangs there. This little...flap of flesh. And there's so much fuss that we make about it" (2851). Gallimard objectifies his own people as well: "Well, I hate the French. Who just smell—period!" (2860) or offers a generalized description of Parisians as arrogant. Finally Song at Gallimard's trial presents a potent summary of mutual stereotyping and objectification: The West thinks of itself as masculine

—big guns, big industry, big money

—so the East is feminine

—weak, delicate, poor.

. .but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom

—the feminine mystique (2864). It is in this background of mutual deception, victimization, and stereotyping that the notion of the post-colonial self evolves. The application of Sartre's theory to Gallimard yields the following results. Gallimard's Historicized Self amounts to a frustrated, middleaged, European career diplomat historically, culturally, and psychologically conditioned to view the relationship of Europeans to non-Westerners in the framework of domination and submission. Gallimard's "Being for Others" can be broken into several "Others," including his family, his employer, French society and the principal Other, Song. Gallimard's wife, Helga is aware of her husband's extramarital affairs, but is willing to overlook them in return for enjoying the obvious benefits life can offer to a diplomat's spouse. Toulon, Gallimard's superior, at first rewards him for being an industrious employee then presides at his trial, French society sees him as a pathetic dupe, and Song considers him no more than an assignment. Gallimard's "Being in the World", or the Splintered or unrealized Self, is generated as a consequence of being stifled by aggressive, almost masculine women, by the constraints of being a 101