Author-ities

Daffodil poems, M. Butterfly, etc.

Metafiction and Parody: Postmodern Challenges of

Outline

Why parody and metafiction? Parody: definitionParody: examplesMetafiction: definitionMetafiction: examples M. Butterfly as Parodic Metatheatre 1) metatheatre defined; 2) the ‘meta-’ elements; 3) the parodic elements 4) role play & powerReferences Assignments for next week

Why parody and metafiction?

1. Both are dominant postmodern genres which move beyond their textual boundaries;

(text context; intertext 互文 )2. Both serve to illustrate how postmodernism c

hallenges/deconstructs author-ities; 3. Like postmodernism, the examples of (self)de

constructing texts will help us understand poststructuralist theories (e.g. deconstruction).

Parody: Definitions

Comic and/or critical imitation + revision. (comic parody; critical parody, metafictional parody.)

Comic refunctioning of preformed linguistic or artistic material (Rose 52).

De-coding and re-encoding

Parodies in Popular Culture

電視模仿風 & parodies of politicians ：李祖惜（侯冠群﹚；附總統（倪敏然﹚；張俊熊（高凌風﹚

Sesame Streets’ parodies: Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run“ “Born to Add”  

Beatles’ “Let it Be” “Letter B” music & music videos: by 豬頭皮， "Weird Al"

YankovicFilms: Mel Brook’s films (Young Frankenstein, etc.)

Woody Allen’s films.

Parodies in Arts

Paintings: e.g. “The Last Supper”, “Scream” etc.Photography:

(left: Big Bad Chinese Mama right: Cindy Sherman)

Parody: Related Issues

critical parody or playful imitation? The issue of copyright. e.g. a 1992 U.S. case, Rogers v. Koons; Mattel v. Walking Mountain Productions (Tom Forysthe’s products );

parody or pastiche? Loss of history, meaning? Schizophrenic lack of depth?Challenging originality, author & author-ities.

parody or pastiche?

1) Moulin Rouge2) Richard Hamilton

Just What Is It That Makes Today's Home So Different, So Appealing? (1956)

How is ‘Today’s home’ critiqued?

--example of pastiche:

Daffodil Poems

What are the main ideas of each poem?

Stop bothering us!

The bliss of solitude

What is “meta-”?

Fr. Greek meta-, “beside, after”; or “above, upon, or about” (in other words, both referring to and transforming/transcending at the same time). 後設

What is metafiction?

Easy signs

story within the story; frame within the frame;

TV within TV Historical figures

juxtaposed with fictional ones;

Digression, discussion of plot… whatever stops you from being immersed in the story.

Self-Reflexive Arts:

general definition

Art which expose its own artificiality (and that of its target), e.g. artistic medium(stage, language, camera), creati

ve process; artistic frames, story,

by 1) denying the author’s power; 2) bringing its context into the text; 3) making narrative intrusion, speaking to the

audience/reader; 4) refusing to tell the whole story or revealin

g its untruthfulness.

Challenging “Reality” & Realism

Some metafictional methods: 1. Discuss/expose novelistic elements or frames; 2. Undermining the “Author’s” abilities to control meanings; 3. Parody or pastiche

Different kinds of “reality”: Belief/stereotype, History, Memory, Life, Identity

Realist conventions: omniscient narrator (author-god), progressive & linear history, characters with depth. • Fourth wall in theatre

Masterpiece, 1962 (137,2x137,2)

Mr & Mrs Melvin Hirsch, Beverly hills (Ca.) ;

Homepage of Introd. to Lit. Ray Schulte, Fall 1999

Metafiction: e.g. (1) -- In what ways are these two

images meta-art or meta-homepage?

Metafiction: some examples (2)

1. Music videos; 2. Animation: 1) “Animando”; 2) “I move, so . . . “ 3) “Mindscape” 3. M. Butterfly: 1) as metatheatre, 2) as pa

rody of Orientalism, 3) role play

M. Butterfly as metatheatre

“"Metatheatre" is a convenient name for the quality or force in a play which challenges theatre's claim to be simply realistic -- to be nothing but a mirror in which we view the actions and sufferings of characters like ourselves, suspending our disbelief in their reality. ” (source)

metatheatre

Marks those frames and boundaries that conventional dramatic realism would hide.

we are forced to acknowledge the estranging frame, or break the frame of the "fourth wall" of conventional theatre, reaching out to assault the audience or to draw it into the realm of the play

Thus calls attention to the strangeness, artificiality, illusoriness, or arbitrariness of theatre and also the life we live in (source)

M. Butterfly metatheatrical elements?

Direct address to the audience:pp. 4; 7; 9 Stage direction -- which suggests mixing of the Chinese

and western elements p. 1; costume change: pp. 14

Characters as (writers and) performers Pinkerton -- Gallimard, Marc – SharplessChin – Suzuki Song – Cio-Cio Sang

The role of Gallimard as “an author”: pp. 2,

M. Butterfly metatheatrical elements?

Purpose of the ‘meta’ aspects: -- Madame Butterfly performed and adapted

to his version of the story. The problem is that he is not the only “author.” Life as performances of different roles (subject position provided by discourses) which are defined in terms of each other.

-- conflicting versions of “history” --in the play and in history.

M. Butterfly: a critical parody of Orientalism (definition)

examples of Westerner view of the Chinese: Helga – pp. 18 “old”; MB; martial art; Gallimard’s gaining power p. 36 –38; his inside knowl

edge 45; parody of Madame Butterfly? MB included (e.g. 5-8; 13; 42 ) and then criticized p. 1

0 more subtle criticism: Juxtaposition of “Love Duet” an

d girlie magazine pp. 11-; Song by the window 25; p. 41

Roles & Difference

Why do the characters take roles which are opposite to each other?

Why does Song takes the role after criticizing it?

-- “Vive la différence!” p. 4; “bad” defined in relation to “good”; man defined in relation to “woman.”

-- discrepancies between rhetoric and “realities”

Binary Opposites:G/Marc vs. Women

1) Marc: pp. 8-9; 24-25; pp. 32-33

2) Western women—strong or not lovable: Helga, Isabelle p. 32-33;

3) Oriental “woman”: submissive & pleasing;

Man Sexy, desirable

womanWimp

Sexy, desirable woman

Wimp (G) Oriental Woman

BinariesSubverted or Relativized.

1) Song: ironic overtones: pp. 30; 51;

2) The switching of roles.

While G is gaining power: Man (M) Sexy, desirable

womanWimp (G)

Sexy, desirable woman

Wimp (G) Oriental Woman

Switching RolesG vs. Song

1) Song: anti-Orientalism; Gallimard: attracted (like and dislike MB), sees Song as “sour grape” p. 19 2) Song: “Western”; distanced from her culture. Gallimard: aware of imperialism; distanced from

his values; 3) Song: “But sometimes . . . “ (p. 22) G: feel able to “flirt” power relations 4) Song: “Do you forgive me?” p. 26

Role PlayG vs. Song (2)

5) G’s thirst intensified p. 27; Song’s role as Oriental woman: 1) Anna May W

ong; inferiority complex pp. 27-28; as a Chinese girl 31; 6) G’s eight-week torture of Song and his ascension t

o power pp. 31 – (Toulon as “God”) 7) Intrusion of comrade Chin 47 8) Discussion of infertility p. 50

Role Relativized

Man (M) Sexy, desirable woman (Renee)

Wimp

Sexy, desirable woman

Wimp (G) Oriental Woman

1. While Song is re-gaining his power: he continues and exaggerates the role of Oriental woman. (p. 51)

2. G: after gaining power, wants to gain more. (p. 54; ) not from Renee but from Song.(56)

Power Plays

No one has absolute power. Power has to be confirmed by those subordinate to it, or by chances in reality.

e.g. Toulon’s test of Gallimard. P. 57

Gallimard goes by to Song after being denied by Renee and Toulon in turns.

Roles = Clothes

1) Renee: We fight wars because we wear clothes. P. 55

2) Gallimard not undressing Song. 60-- Is there truth underneath clothes? Or is clothing a

part of identity?-- Does Gallimard turns to “really” love Song at the e

nd of Scene 60. What’s the “something new, something unnatural, . . . Something very close to love”?

Orientalism

"Orientalism is a Western style for dominating, reconstructing and having authority over the Orient" (E. Said Orienatalism Introduction 3). It is supported by a large group of discourses ranging from travelogue, letters to academic studies. It’s constructions of ‘the Orient’ is usually stereotypical.

Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.;from The Thief of Bagdad (United Artists, 1924).

References

Rose, Margaret A. Parody: Ancient, Modern and Post-Modern. NY: Cambridge UP, 1993.

Metafiction: http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/metafiction.htm

Metatheatre: http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/Courses/engl327/327.meta.html

Assignments for next week

1) Finish M. Butterfly

2) Postmodernism lecture 1

3) The Group’s text?