On "butterfly Theater Context

David Henry Hwang is considered as the most renowned Asian-American dramatist of the twentieth century. He keeps surprising us ever since his first play, FOB. However, it was his M. Butterfly(1988)that won him Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, John Gassner Award and Pulitzer Prize Nomination. As a Chinese–American, Hwang's subversion of Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly has attracted a lot of scholars and critics who evaluate the play mainly from the standards of some literary critical theories while ignoring the structure and the theatrical techniques in the play's construction.In this thesis, I will discuss the metadramatic techniques David Henry Hwang applies in the play. This thesis consists of five parts. The first chapter, Introduction introduces the play M. Butterfly, the overall reviews on it and metadrama with its self-reflexive devices. The second chapter discuss what is context and"the play within play"in M. Butterfly , the relationship between context and"the play within play. The third chapter analyzes four types of context in M. Butterfly. The fourth chapter analyzes the great times background and literature environment in Amercian.