The Cinematic Representation of Oriental Images in Hwang’s M. Butterfly

Adapting Hwang’s play, Cronenberg raises the question of fixed, coherent and unitary subjectivity. However, in Cronenberg’s film, political elements or themes clearly displayed in Hwang’s text are attenuated. Rather, it is the desire for the physical and mental transformation and homoeroticism that Cronenberg finds most interesting in Hwang’s play. For these reasons, Cronenbeg’s film can be seen as a work that lacks a voice for the Other and a power of expanding viewers’ perspectives about the shifting power structure. Considering the countless possible relationships between literature and film, this paper attempts to point out that it might be problematic that Cronenberg delivers the messages that deviate from the intentions of the playwright under the same title M. Butterfly to an audience who might believe that the film is an authentic representation of the original text.