East is East and West is West a
- Slides: 8
East is East and West is West: a literary and historical view from the perspective of Madame Butterfly Nick Bamford Senior Lecturer + Course Leader - TV Production Bournemouth University UK
East is East and West is West Japonisme followed opening up of Japan to international trade - 1858 artefacts, ceramics, culture e. g. The Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan) Madame Chrysanthème novella - Pierre Loti 1887 ‘Japanese Marriage’
East is East and West is West Le Cahier Rose de Madame Chrysanthème Félix Régamey 1893 Madame Butterfly novella - John Luther Long 1897 Madame Butterfly stage play - David Belasco 1900 Madama Butterfly opera - Giacomo Puccini – Giacosa/Illica - 1904
East is East and West is West Madame Butterfly Cultural misunderstanding – wilful/wishful Dominant West – submissive East Dominant male – submissive female
East is East and West is West Madame Butterfly Hollywood film versions: 1915 – Mary Pickford 1932 – Cary Grant/Sylvia Sidney o caricature of Japan o exoneration of Pinkerton worsening East/West Relations The Heat of the Sun novel - David Rain 2012
East is East and West is West M. Butterfly stage play + film- D. H. Hwang 1989 …subverts the love story and the East/West relationship Miss Saigon Musical – Schonberg + Boublil/Maltby …. satirises ‘The American Dream’ Cho Film NHK 2011 the Japanese perspective
East is East and West is West Bangkok Butterfly screenplay – 2016 ‘queered’ version destabilises the heteronormative paradigm …balance of power appears to be more equal. . who’s exploiting whom? parallels the West/East macrocosm of the context Microcosm of personal exploitation within macrocosm of the system set up for the stronger economy to exploit the weaker
East is East and West is West Bangkok Butterfly 21 st century context: o internet o quick and cheap global travel o tourist instead of traveller: ‘exotic otherness’ observed from comfortably familiar environment ‘Chai’ (Cho San) can be active, not just passive but…. . …. in terms of human behaviour, how much has changed?
