Reimagining the Madame Butterfly Narrative

Huining Ouyang’s Reimagining the Madame Butterfly Narrative examines Asian American literary revisions of the Butterfly story since the beginning of American expansionism in Asia. Through textual, intertextual, and contextual analyses, Ouyang demonstrates the ways in which Asian American retellings have been transformative in not only transgressing established boundaries but also reenvisioning geopolitical and gender power relations as well as Asian American subjectivities. At the same time, by showing how Asian American engagement with the dominant narrative has been unevenly marked by accommodation, resistance, and ambivalence, she offers a nuanced understanding of the discursive practices and dynamics in Asian American self-representation. Inviting multilayered reconceptualization, Ouyang demonstrates the promise and problematics of Asian American critique and argues for continued anti-Orientalism in our current moment.