Reconstructing Asian American Masculinity in M. Butterfly and Donald Duk

• Main Authors: Mei-chi Chen, 陳美琪
• Other Authors: 陳淑卿
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/41373797646234023222

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 外國語文學系 === 92 === Abstract David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly and Frank Chin’s Donald Duk are two works on Asian American masculinity which needs to be reconstructed urgently. The essence of masculinity implies something that one needs to fight with others to ensure it. It is also the thing that each of the East and the West claims to be its legitimate agent. Interested in how Asian American masculinity is performed in these two works, I employ Hegel’s Master-Slave paradigm and Lacan’s Self-Other theory incorporated with the Phallus complex and sexual economy to unravel the power dynamics working in Asian American male’s consciousness as well as between the East and the West. Song Liling in M. Butterfly is a genderized Chinese man who exploits the Oriental fantasy to its highest extent; while Donald Duk is an Americanized Chinese American boy who seeks to claim America by performing the patriarchal masculinity. Both works reveal the Master-Slave paradigm which is a never-ending tug of war: Asian American men are struggling with American men for the recognition of masculinity, the position of Master. This thesis aims to be a reexamination and a reconstruction of Asian American masculinity as a whole.