POST-COLONIALISM:
Post-colonial criticism is similar to cultural studies, but it assumes a unique perspective on literature and politics that warrants a separate discussion. Specifically, post-colonial critics are concerned with literature produced by colonial powers and works produced by those who were/are colonized. Post-colonial theory looks at issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony (western colonizers controlling the colonized).
Therefore, a post-colonial critic might be interested in works such as Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe where colonial "...ideology [is] manifest in Crusoe's colonialist attitude toward the land upon which he's shipwrecked and toward the black man he 'colonizes' and names Friday" (Tyson 377). In addition, post-colonial theory might point out that "...despite Heart of Darkness's (Joseph Conrad) obvious anti-colonist agenda, the novel points to the colonized population as the standard of savagery to which Europeans are contrasted" (Tyson 375). Post-colonial criticism also takes the form of literature composed by authors that critique Euro-centric hegemony.
SOURCE: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/10/
A type of cultural criticism, postcolonial criticism usually involves the analysis of literary texts produced in countries and cultures that have come under the control of European colonial powers at some point in their history. Alternatively, it can refer to the analysis of texts written about colonized places by writers hailing from the colonizing culture. In Orientalism (1978), Edward Said, a pioneer of postcolonial criticism and studies, focused on the way in which the colonizing First World has invented false images and myths of the Third (postcolonial) World—stereotypical images and myths that have conveniently justified Western exploitation and domination of Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures and peoples. In the essay "Postcolonial Criticism" (1992), Homi K. Bhabha has shown how certain cultures (mis)represent other cultures, thereby extending their political and social domination in the modern world order.
Postcolonial studies, a type of cultural studies, refers more broadly to the study of cultural groups, practices, and discourses—including but not limited to literary discourses—in the colonized world. The term postcolonial is usually used broadly to refer to the study of works written at any point after colonization first occurred in a given country, although it is sometimes used more specifically to refer to the analysis of texts and other cultural discourses that emerged after the end of the colonial period (after the success of the liberation and independence movements). Among feminist critics, the postcolonial perspective has inspired an attempt to recover whole cultures of women heretofore ignored or marginalized—women who speak not only from colonized places but also from the colonizing places to which many of them fled. Postcolonial criticism has been influenced by Marxist thought, by the work of Michel Foucault (whose theories about the power of discourses have influenced the new historicism), and by deconstruction, which has challenged not only hierarchical, binary oppositions such as West/East and North/South but also the notions of superiority associated with the first term of each opposition.
SOURCE: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_post.html
SYNOPSIS:
SYNOPSIS:
M. Butterfly takes place in a prison cell in Paris at some point in the “present” (though it hints at the late 1900’s), with many recalls and flashbacks throughout. It begins with Monsieur Rene Gallimard, a 65 year old man and the main character of the play. Throughout the play, he often addresses the reader and refers to his flashbacks, which appear on a different part of the stage.
Gallimard addresses the reader at first in Act 1 Scene 1, describing his cell and his fame for some monumental event in his past after an apparent hallucination of Song Liling, a woman dancing to a love duet in the opera Madame Butterfly. This opera is very symbolic and will be often referenced throughout the rest of the play.
Scene 2 is a conversation between generic, unidentified people at a bar somewhere discussing Gallimard himself and his fame, which vaguely alludes to some large event in his past. Gallimard somehow views this scene from his cell and relates it in Scene 3 again to something in his past, which he says can only be understood if one is introduced to the opera Madame Butterfly. He reenacts a scene from the opera with a seemingly hallucinated childhood friend, Marc. Gallimard plays the part of the very masculine figure Pinkerton, who contrasts the sensitive and reasoning character Sharpless. Gallimard hints that whatever happened to him in his past was analogous to this opera, except that he was the sensitive one.
Scene 4 is a quick flashback to Gallimard’s childhood, which suggests he had an insecurity with girls and himself, and he tells the audience that he was convicted for treason in “his version” of Madame Butterfly. Scenes 5 and 6 encompass Gallimard describing the plot of Madame Butterfly, which seems to be very analogous to his life. Mixed with these descriptions, we learn further information about Gallimard’s insecurity as a boy and also that he married a woman named Helga. Liling Song is introduced to Gallimard at an opera house in Beijing in 1960 playing the Madame Butterfly herself, who in the opera is a woman who kills herself after she falls in love white man from America and realizes she can’t have his love anymore.
Scenes 7-10 show Gallimard’s growing affection towards Song, who tries to be strong and masculine but is really small and weak, which fits man’s desire of an oriental women submitting to a western white man. Scenes 11 and 12 are intense investigations by Gallimard, who ignores Song in order to see if she really is a feminine figure who is falling for him. Gallimard does this because he searching for validation that he really is a man, which he believes is confirmed when he gets promoted to Vice-consul, a high position in his department. This inspires him to finally accept his love for Song, and he goes to her apartment in Scene 13 and sleeps with her, despite her insecurity about removing her clothes.
In Act 2, Scenes 1-3 describe Gallimard’s continued affair with Song, and Gallimard tells his superior that he believe Orientals will always submit to greater western force, which matches what he currently believes vindicates his masculinity. In Scene 4 we see, for the first time, a suspicious dialogue between Song and Comrade Chin, where Song gives private war information received from Gallimard. Scene 5 is significant, showing Gallimard’s wife blaming Gallimard for the inability to produce a child, the ultimate symbol of potency and manhood.
Scene 6 shows Gallimard develop another affair with a girl named Renee who questions what it means to be masculine, while we see Gallimard develop insecurity about his masculinity. This results in him finally returning to Song, requesting that he wants to see her naked to remove any barriers between them when Song reveals she is pregnant, the final apparent confirmation of Gallimard’s masculinity. Scene 7 is another suspicious Scene between Song and Chin, where we learn that Song is not really pregnant and is fooling Gallimard.
Scene 8 and 9 show the end of Gallimard’s affair with Song, who refuses to marry Gallimard and burden him with their baby because she proclaims to be so inferior. Gallimard is also sent home due to incompetency in his wartime recommendations, and we learn in a conversation between Song and Chin that Song and Gallimard indeed had sex, which Song is then punished for four years for.
In Scene 10, Song gets permission from Chin to go to France to go back to Gallimard and spy to receive more information about the war. In Scene 11, Gallimard finally reveals that he wants a divorce from Helga, who has opposing views to Gallimard about China. Song suddenly returns to Gallimard, surprising him while he begs her never to change, which she says is impossible.
In Act 3 Scene 1, 15 years later, we see Song in a courtroom in Paris. It is finally revealed that he is a man and a Chinese spy who has been passing along classified information received from Gallimard. He explains how it was possible to fool a man about being a woman for 20 years. Song explains how deeply he understood Gallimard’s insecurity about being a man, which allowed him to create a fantasy perfection that Gallimard would believe. Scene 2 shows Gallimard’s reaction to learning Song is a man. He realizes that the fantasy of his perfect Butterfly still exists, and he chooses to continue searching for her over reality. In Scene 3, we return to the “present,” where we finally see Gallimard commit suicide, which is directly analogous to Butterfly’s suicide in Madame Butterfly, hence the ambiguous title of the play, M. Butterfly, which embodies Gallimard’s reversed and repressed identity.
SOURCE: http://aatheatre.web.unc.edu/2011/02/02/david-henry-hwang-m-butterfly-synopsis/
ANALYSIS:
The protagonist, Rene Gallimard, is a civil servant on the French embassy in China. He fell in love with Song, a Chinese Opera Diva, who is actually a man and a spy. He's been convicted of treason and imprisoned. In the end Gallimard commit suicide because of the truth he can't accept.
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