The Pastiche And Subversion:An Analysis Of M.Butterfly And Madame Butterfly From The Perspective Of Feminism

Giacomo Puccini,Italian composer,one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism.His mature operas included La Bohème,Tosca,Turandot(left incomplete)and Madame Butterfly.Madame Butterfly is one of the top ten classic operas in the world.Madame Butterfly is set in Japan.It tells the story of the heroine,Cio-Cio-San,who lives lonely after marrying Pinkerton,who is an American naval officer.However,what she waits for is betrayal.Cio-Cio-San commits suicide.David Henry Hwang is one of the most influential contemporary Chinese American writers.His masterpieces include dramas Fresh off the Boat,The Dance and The Railroad,Family Devotions and M.Butterfly.M.Butterfly is a winner of the Tony Award for Best Play and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.The play draws heavily from the Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly,but the play ultimately inverts the key roles.It tells a story of a French diplomat who had a long affair with a singer in the Beijing opera.The woman he loved later proved to be not only a man but also a spy;therefore,he committed suicide.The plots of the two works are similar.In Madame Butterfly,Cio-Cio-San decides to fight against the oppression of the Japanese patriarchal society,so she chooses to marry Pinkerton to get rid of the oppression.However,she is abandoned by Pinkerton,and her fight is a failure.Finally,Cio-Cio-San chooses to commit suicide.In M.Butterfly,Song Liling also faces the oppression of Gallimard,who wants Song Lingling to be his plaything.However,she cleverly creates an ideal and submissive female image which Gallimard’s ideal of womanhood in order to manipulate Gallimard and obtain intelligence from him.Finally,her real identity is disclosed.Gallimard cannot accept the truth and chooses to commit suicide,while Song Liling leaves him.The endings of the two heroines are quite different,which is thought-provoking.Beauvoir once said that women are shaped by society,so the concept of women is more inclined to social shaping than physiological women.Therefore,this thesis analyzes and discusses Song Liling and Cio-Cio-San from the above female perspective.With the help of the theory of immanence and transcendence,this thesis analyzes that Cio-Cio-San’s resistance failure is due to her lack of transcendence and being bound by immanence;The reason for Song Liling’s successful subversion is that Song broke the chain of immanence and realized transcendence.Through the theory of intertextuality,this thesis explains that the development of external social history determines whether women can break the shackles of immanence and achieve transcendence,and then take effective measures to resist or even subvert the patriarchal oppression.With the help of intertextuality,David Henry Hwang presents this phenomenon in M.Butterfly to enlighten people that women who break the inner shackles and achieve transcendence in the new era are powerful.They can effectively resist and even subvert the patriarchal oppression.This thesis consists of four parts:The introduction is divided into three parts.The first part introduces Giacomo Puccini,David Henry Hwang and their works;the second part is the literature review of the two works at home and abroad;the third part introduces Beauvoir’s the theory of the Other,the concept of immanence and Transcendence and the theory of intertextuality.From chapter one to chapter three are the discussion part of the thesis.The first chapter mainly reveals the following phenomena: in Madame Butterfly,the patriarchal thought prevails in the society and is in an overwhelming position;Cio-CioSan is aware of oppression,but it is challenging to take effective ways to get rid of oppression;in M.Butterfly,the patriarchal thought is no longer overwhelming,and Song Liling can find an opportunity to resist patriarchal oppression and successfully subvert it.The second chapter analyzes the above phenomena for internal causes of the characters.It concludes that the Immanence hinders women from taking effective measures of resistance,which leads to the failure of resistance.At the same time,Transcendence can help women successfully resist and even subvert oppression.The third chapter explains the phenomenon from the external reasons.This chapter starts from the text level(plot and role)and the historical text level,and analyzes the phenomenon with the help of intertextuality theory,so as to draw the conclusion that the development of social history provides the external basis for women to achieve transcendence.With the help of intertextuality,Huang presents this change in his play,that is,women can achieve the transcendence with the help of the social environment,and then can take effective measures to resist or even subvert the oppression of patriarchy.