《M. 나비》에 나타난 몸의 정치학

The 1980s was a new phase of American literary production with the emergence of prominent Asian American plays along with newly-generated literary criticism such as Franz Fanon’s postcolonialism, Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of hybridity, and Edward Said’s Orientalism. In David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, such challenges are well portrayed through the parody of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. The Chinese opera male singer, Song deceives the male French diplomat, Gallimard by using his oriental body because Gallimard’s fantasy about Orientalism toward the East and the Eastern women consistently make Gallimard believe Song is his Madame Butterfly. However, Song’s strategy of taking advantage of Gallimard’s Orientalism conversely reveals that Gallimard is Song’s Madame Butterfly at the end. Through Song’s body politics, M. Butterfly suggests there exists no absolute binary opposition of gender and race. M. Butterfly presents a possibility for Asian Americans to experience their metaphoric release from their past racial trauma.