Metatheatre In M. Butterfly: David Henry Hwang's Subversion Of Madame Butterfly

David Henry Hwang is considered as one of the most talented Chinese American playwrights in the United States.In 1988,due to M.Butterfly,he became the first Chinese American writer who has ever been awarded the Tony Award for Best Play of the Year.M.Butterfly is a blending of Eastern and Western subjects as well as metatheatrical devices.Metadrama is drama about drama.It is put forth by Lionel Abel and further developed by Richard Hornby.Hornby divides metadrama into five categories,namely the play within the play,the ceremony within the play,role-playing within the role, literary and real-life reference,and self-reference.Though these varieties have their respective distinguishable effects,they are often blended into one another.M.Butterfly blends four types of metadramatic devices in it,which are the play within the play, role-playing within the role,literary and real-life reference and self-reference.At times, metatheatre can yield the effect of"estrangement"or"alienation"and help its audiences see different layers of the play,which is the true significance of metatheatre.This thesis will study the metatheatrical devices Hwang adopts in M.Butterfly,and explores the way in which Hwang successfully breaks the stereotypes of Asian Americans.It consists of five chapters.The first chapter gives a general introduction to the playwright David Henry Hwang and his play M.Butterfly and the brief illumination of metatheatre.In the second chapter,the metatheatrical device of play within the play will be studied.It illustrates how the playwright,with this device, develops his play through four layers in M.Butterfly,constantly creating and then breaking the dramatic illusion.In the third chapter,the focus will be laid upon the metatheatrical device of role-playing within the role.It reveals Hwang's creative way of shaping his characters in M.Butterfly and helps the audience better probe into the inner world of the characters.In the fourth chapter,the device of real-life and literary reference will be discussed.It unfolds the relationships of the play with the real-life references and the literary reference,Madame Butterfly.In the fifth chapter,the acknowledgement of the audience and the metatheatrical device of self-reference are examined.The former explores the world of the play by including the audience,which brings the intimacy between the play and its audience;the latter creates the alienation effect and estranges the audiences from the characters in the play and the play itself, which assure that the audiences have their independent and undisruptive mental analysis of the play.The thesis ends with the conclusion that Hwang subverts the myth of Madame Butterfly and breaks the stereotypes of Asian Americans,calling for equal communication between the East and the West.