Race and gender in: "M. Butterfly" - Committing suicide "cross-dressed" and "cross-raced" to fulfill the fantasy of a perfect woman (ePub)

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7 (A-), University of Cologne (English Seminar), course: Sex/Gender Representation in Modern American Culture, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction

The figure in the middle of the high room seems to be alone, despite all the people around him. He (apparently a male person) kneels on a kind of a stage wearing a kimono and a wig. It must be a prison, because all the people around wear prison clothing. Like spectators in an arena (or in a theatre) the prisoners occupy the balconies above, and the space in front of the stage. He starts to speak:

"I have a vision. Of the Orient. That, deep within her almond eyes, there are still women. Women willing to sacrifice themselves for the love of a man. Even a man whose love is completely without worth."

In my paper I want to show, how Eng's text can help to analyze three particular passages of David Cronenberg's movie to look behind Gallimard's psyche. I will take those three sequences which appear in chronological order in the film, and apply parts of Eng's theory on them. How does Gallimard manage the situations, and why "it is, after all, only through Gallimard's sustained identifications with and Song's sustained investments in conventional stereotypes and fantasies of the Oriental geisha that Hwang's drama can unfold to its pitiable end." Doing this, I am also briefly going to look on certain cinematic techniques (especially the setting of light in the first scene I have chosen) to find out, how David Cronenberg interprets Hwang's Drama and how he creates Gallimard's psyche, Gallimard's feelings for Song, and how Cronenberg deals with the question of gender and race. And finally, I will raise the question, if Gallimard is homosexual. Does Eng's theory give a proper answer for that or can that question be solved, though Eng does eventually not give any answers.