The Issue of Orientalism in Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly

This article examines the issue of Orientalism in two different literary works. One of them is the opera called “Madame Butterfly” by Giacomo Puccini and the other one is a play called “M. Butterfly” by David Henry Hwang. Both literary works focus on the romantic relationship between female characters who have South Asian origins and male characters who have European and American origins. Both works include stereotypical images about the Eastern cultures and peoples; however, the opera has a humiliating approach while the play has a more objective and satirical attitude. The first one criticizes the people of the Orient and regards them as “uncivilized”, “weak”, “submissive”, “passive” and “feminine” whereas the latter one draws a more realistic and objective picture of them and regard them as quite intelligent, hardworking and ambitious, and tries to show the reader that the oppressed and defined Eastern people by the others do not necessarily conform to the image that was created by the Orientalist writers.

Keywords

East, West, Orient, Occident, the other, Edward Said, Orientalism