Feedback of Brent, Liz. "Critical Essay on 'M. Butterfly'."
Assignment :Reading Journal #1
Feedback of Brent, Liz. "Critical Essay on 'M. Butterfly'." Drama for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.
Summary: based on a true story about a French diplomat who lived for twenty years as the lover of a person he thought was a Chinese female actress but who was in fact a Chinese male spy. Especially, it is a play base on a true story not a fiction.
I am totally agree with this critical essay. To many westen foreigners, in their mind, the typical stereotype of Asian woman is exotic, submissive, and more than willing to serve. Just like the images of women in "girlie magazines" suggest to the man that "You can do whatever you want."But, in fact, many of us in nowadays are very independicent, storng in the other way as much as Songin the play.
Absolutely, the whole essay urges the reader to question gender roles dictated by society by showing how gender could perform their role each other. As Song pretends to be a female, he is representing the female gender role as dictated by society, proving that these roles can be reversed and may perhaps be only in our heads.
For Gallimard , it is very cruel knowing that Song is a man after being together for twenty years. At begining, Gallimard has the vivid concept of “Perfect Woman” which all fit into Song because she attempts to act that way to match his illusion.
Then.Gallimard symbolically characterizes his relationship to Song Liling, a relationship based on his own personal fantasies of what "The Perfect Woman" is like, a relationship in which he occupied "an enchanted space" of his own imagination. The author makes a strong feminist statement here by implying that the pleasure for a man in paying for a fantasy image of a woman is not so much sexual, as one of power.Through this kind of power, Song kills Gallimard’s fantasy stereotype without gun but love. We can see it from the saying in thie play "You
Feedback of Brent, Liz. "Critical Essay on 'M. Butterfly'." Drama for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.
Summary: based on a true story about a French diplomat who lived for twenty years as the lover of a person he thought was a Chinese female actress but who was in fact a Chinese male spy. Especially, it is a play base on a true story not a fiction.
I am totally agree with this critical essay. To many westen foreigners, in their mind, the typical stereotype of Asian woman is exotic, submissive, and more than willing to serve. Just like the images of women in "girlie magazines" suggest to the man that "You can do whatever you want."But, in fact, many of us in nowadays are very independicent, storng in the other way as much as Songin the play.
Absolutely, the whole essay urges the reader to question gender roles dictated by society by showing how gender could perform their role each other. As Song pretends to be a female, he is representing the female gender role as dictated by society, proving that these roles can be reversed and may perhaps be only in our heads.
For Gallimard , it is very cruel knowing that Song is a man after being together for twenty years. At begining, Gallimard has the vivid concept of “Perfect Woman” which all fit into Song because she attempts to act that way to match his illusion.
Then.Gallimard symbolically characterizes his relationship to Song Liling, a relationship based on his own personal fantasies of what "The Perfect Woman" is like, a relationship in which he occupied "an enchanted space" of his own imagination. The author makes a strong feminist statement here by implying that the pleasure for a man in paying for a fantasy image of a woman is not so much sexual, as one of power.Through this kind of power, Song kills Gallimard’s fantasy stereotype without gun but love. We can see it from the saying in thie play "You