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The Dissolving of Sexuality Binaries in M. Butterfly: Psychoanalytic Criticism and the Body

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2018, 31(1), pp.33-55
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Lee Wooil 1,  Hyung Shik Lee 1

1건국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the dissolving of sexuality binaries in David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly and the psychoanalytic criticism that tries to interpret M. Butterfly’s sexual issue. Most of the psychoanalytic approaches to M. Butterfly have focused on Rene Gallimard’s castration anxiety and Song Liling’s queer activities. Though these attempts interestingly show Song and Gallimard’s respective problems of identity, they ignore the issue of the body and still follow the binary structure of sexuality. I argue that Song’s sexuality is an expression of his/her existence and Song’s body is the space of his/her sexuality. According to Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the body has an indivisible relationship with human existence, and sexuality is inseparable from the body. In this context, I argue that when Song’s naked body is perceived by Gallimard, the binary structure of sexuality that Gallimard’s fantasy has maintained is eventually dissolved. Before the division between sex and gender, Song’s body shows us that his/her sexuality does not belong to the binary structure that divides man from woman. As an expression of human existence, Song’s naked body can be the most decisive tool for deconstructing the binary structure of sexuality.

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