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 exposed to the mysteries of the Far East, and by his inability to understand the other sex. Home as the imaginary community partly exists in Gallimard's relationship with his wife Helga, and in his friendship with Marc. Home on the temporal sphere encompassing public myths and private memories is represented by Gallimard's attachment to the Butterfly myth along with his encounters with the pinup girl and his former lover, Renee. Gallimard occupies a third space, a virtual home, partly by acting as Pinkerton in the Madame Butterfly story, and by the very fact that he enters the myth. This third space is located in between the domains of the European male and the Asian female. Due to Song's cruel deception of Rene, however, this home indeed turns out to be a virtual one. The object of Gallimard's desire, Song Liling's character can also be analyzed according to Sartre's theory. His "Being for Itself," or the sum total of Song's I includes an individual deprived of his will, a person forced to play a farcical role, an Easterner burdened by stereotypical thinking, and a frustrated human being attempting to cope with his sexual orientation. Song's "Being for Others" also serves several audiences including Chinese society, the West, and his principal Other, Gallimard himself. Chinese society treats him with disdain and marginalizes him, the West considers him as the stereotypical effeminate Asian male, and Gallimard views him as the embodiment of the quintessential Asian female. Marginalized and stigmatized, Song is homeless and deprived of an imaginary community. As far as home on the temporal sphere is concerned, while Gallimard and Song both share the Butterfly myth, they approach it from differing vantage points. While Gallimard praises the sacrifice of Cho Cho San, Song sees it as a symbol of the subjection of Asian women and considers it ridiculous. It is noteworthy, however, that Song eventually moves to France, thus invades the spatial home of Gallimard. By moving to the West, Song feels the alienation and separation from his home and indeed is forced into a third space seeing his own people in stereotypes emphasizing their stinginess. The relationship between Gallimard and Song can be compared to 19th century blackface minstrelsy in America, a logonomic system, or a coded discourse of dominance "describing social semiotic behaviors 102