东方幻象的建构与解构——论《蝴蝶君》对《蝴蝶夫人》的改写

Construction and Deconstruction of the Image of the Orient:M.Butterfly as an Adaptation of Madame Butterfly

普契尼的歌剧《蝴蝶夫人》是一个明显带有东方主义痕迹的文本。一个世纪以来 ,在它的帮助下 ,西方人将东方人在种族和性别上加以定型化 ,蝴蝶夫人成为东方女子的刻板形象。作为美国戏剧史上最成功的亚裔剧作家 ,黄哲伦在其代表作《蝴蝶君》中巧妙地将一个真实的事件与《蝴蝶夫人》并置 ,使二者互文 ,不仅解构了东方女子的刻板形象 ,也颠覆了原有的东西方权力关系 ,成为与西方中心主义相对立的他者之声。

Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, is a text with the ostensible properties of Orientalism. It helped the Westerns shape the fantasy about Asian women and conditioned the political relationship between Asia and the West. By juxtaposing and intertextualizing a true story with Madame Butterfly, David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly not only deconstructs the sexist and racist stereotypes of the Orient but also subverts the original relationship of Western dominance and Eastern submissiveness, and thus has become a voice of the “Other” in opposition to Western Centralism.