E 341 Lecture Notes - The Occident And American Jewish Advocate, Neocolonialism, Devaluation
Document Summary
Though japan or china were never formally american or european colonies, some of the paradigms of postcolonial interaction can be used to approach the east-west relations in the different versions of butterfly. As loomba notes, colonization devalued a nation"s past, culture, history, progress in favor of a preference for eurocentric norms, customs, language, culture. This process might take various forms, infantilizing and barbarizing the colonized, rendering them. Unstable" or dangerous, condemning their religious beliefs etc. This dynamic is clear enough in puccini"s opera pinkerton might be a cad but the cultural value system he is rooted in is in fact considered superior to japanese superstition, greed, and naivet . As an audience we empathize with him most when he is banishing the mysterious, cruel priest from his home. And butterfly seems most endearing when she tries to face down sharpless in her american wife guise. Think of other such moments in the text which show such inequities.
