A New Historicist Reading Of David Henry Hwang’s M.Butterfly

David Henry Hwang is a Chinese American playwright, who enjoys a good popularity inthe United States for his prolific writings and numerous influential awards. Because of hisChinese ancestry, he is very politically conscious and sensitive to the problems related toChina. Nearly all his works center around Asian Americans, Chinese Americans or Chinese inparticular. His masterpiece, M. Butterfly, is such a play. So to speak, it tells a story of China.Maybe out of a kind of China complex, the reader and the critics in China have given the playa great deal of concern. The result is that the play became a very controversial one as well asinfluential.In western culture, there exist several entrenched stereotypes of eastern women, ofChinese men, of the power relationship between the West and the East. The classical operaMadame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini plays such stereotypes into the extreme. Thecontroversy mentioned above is whether Hwang’s M. Butterfly deconstructed MadameButterfly completely. Another related controversy is whether he defamed China on purpose inhis plays.This research is conducted from the perspective of new historicism. New historicism callsfor historical consciousness in interpreting literary texts and maintains history and literarytexts be analyzed together by setting texts in their appropriate contexts. And it emphasizespolitics hidden in the texts by classifying the ideology and power relationship in it. In M.Butterfly, Hwang chose China in its1960s and1970s as the main background. He might wantto counter the Butterfly myth with historical facts. However, limited by his dual culturalidentity, he created many other negative images when he endeavored to destroy thestereotypes. From the subjectivity reflected in his narrating the historical stories, the attempt toreshape the Butterfly stereotype, to problems caused in the process of constructing the newstory, they can all be well illustrated by new historicism.This dissertation consists of three chapters in addition to introduction and conclusion. Theintroduction covers the life and the main works of the playwright, the related research at home and abroad, the theoretical introduction, the writing purpose and the significance.Chapter One analyzes the subjectivity of the historical stories with the main newhistoricist assumption "the textuality of history". In new historicists’ view, history is ofsubjectivity as a kind of texts. When it comes to the perfect oriental goddess "Butterfly", thereare two distinct historical stories in two influential literary texts, that is, the story of Cio CioSan in Madame Butterfly and the story of Song Liling in M. Butterfly. Though they both havearchetypes in real life, the final versions involve much fictional creation after a series ofrewriting among different texts. In M. Butterfly, Hwang utilized intertextuality, fiction andmultiple narratives to construct the story. From the analysis, one can see the seeminglyconvincing historical facts are far from real.Chapter Two illustrates the assumption “the historicity of texts”. New historicistsmaintain that texts reflect certain social and historical circumstances on the one hand and textsshape and reshape the latter on the other hand. In the play, Hwang used a series of historicalfragments about China and Vietnam in the1960s and1970s. He tried to deconstruct the clichéin Madame Butterfly and explore ways for eastern women and Chinese men to get rid of thestereotypes of them and for less developed China to develop better in the world. In this way,this play contributes to the shaping and reshaping of the history.Chapter Three illustrates containment in Hwang’s subversion of the stereotypes of easternwomen, Chinese men and China. The common people are allowed to question the establishedsocial ideology and express their unsatisfactory emotions, but in fact the ruling class employsthis means to consolidate the rule. Writers frequently declare war on the hegemony ofmainstream culture, but unconsciously and inevitably they become the spokesmen of theideology of the ruling class of their days and thus contribute to the maintaining of the existingsocial order. Hwang and this play are no exceptions. In M. Butterfly, the eastern lady is nolonger as submissive or powerless as Madame Butterfly, but she becomes a cynical, dishonestand vicious woman. The Chinese man is no longer as slavish or impotent as usual but he isstill a feminized and cunning man. And China in this play is depicted as a backward,unpromising and politically fanatic country. All these are true of the propaganda of theideology at the time in the United States. Despite the efforts he made to deconstruct, what hedid contributes to the consolidation of those pre-existing stereotypes related to the East. The concluding part summarizes the previous chapters. This chapter points out there is nomuch ground for blaming the playwright for his negative writing on Chinese and China in M.Butterfly. He made his efforts to deconstruct those existed stereotypes. His description ofhistorical facts in the play will influence people’s interpretation of those related historical factsin all probability. Readers and critics in China are supposed to get useful information from hisplays and make helpful reflection rather than criticize him and his plays for distorting Chineseculture simply.