EN 3635 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Social Science Fiction, Simone De Beauvoir, Shi Pei Pu
Document Summary
Main themes of his work asians and asian americans in western world. Deconstructs stereotypes of asians that have fascinated the west: butterfly. Preiemered on broadway at eugene o" neill theatre march 20, 1988. So successful ran for 777 performances. Fluidity of set and place imaginatively facilitated. Heightens theatricality and perplexity : butterfly. Loosely based on real-life relationship between french diplomat bernard boursicot and shi pei pu, a male peking opera singer. Inspired by news reports that broke this stor in 1986. M. gender neutral madame/ monsieur. Chinese women meek, submissive, servile, abject. White male fantasy strength, power, domination. Props up notion of white and male supremacy. Privileges binary of male over female and west over east. Gallimard is deceived because he is blinded by stereotype of western culture and male dominancy. Man uses woman as a looking-glass to appear twice his size virginia woolf. How does this quote work with the relationship of gallimard and song.