Tenets Of Postcolonialism

‘Binary Oppositions’ was a term encountered within the paraphernalia of Levi-Strauss’s ‘anthropological structuralism’ (“Literary theory: the basics”); a term used to facilitate a better, corrigible, cogent understanding of the topic. The assistance of this term was found to suit the emulation of the effort to demonstrate the idea of contra-distinct cultural forces between the East and the West with respect to Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa) which was premiered at La Scala, 17 February 1904. In this brief essay I will examine the tenets of early 20th century representations of race, colonialism and gender issues with respect to technical aspects of the opera, it’s libretto and

The primary focus of the first section of this essay will be to look at the way culture plays its role impeccably, in accumulating the consent of the subaltern constituencies of the society in the context of dominant reign. What Said seems to be interested in, is the connection between the East and the West and the specific discourse which facilitates such a connection, naming it ‘orientalism’. Most western discourses, according to Said, are written down by the intention of exercising domination over the Orient. After the fiasco of 17th February, Puccini set about to reduce the amount of Japanese caricature and Pinkerton’s sneers at it in Act 1. Benjamin Franklin’s service of hegemony over Cio Cio San represents West’s aim of controlling the East and in that purpose, constructing a self- portrait of an apparent “superior civilization” where the East is inaudible, fragile, female, sensual, Hispanic and submissive in contrast with the West that is strong, democratic, masculine, stable, dynamic and

Pinkerton, the American, considers himself brave, masculine and effectively, a colonizer and his attempts at colonizing Cio Cio San is emblematic of Britain occupying Japan. A woman has been projected as the perfect metaphor for colonization since a very long time. The colonizer is indefatigable, undefeatable, and ever- trying in his attempts to emerge out victorious in achieving another feat of “penetrating the Orient”(“A Vision of the Orient”). He will marry in “Japanese fashion, tied for nine hundred and ninety nine years. Free though, to annul the marriage monthly”. The bride is also primarily talked of as “ a garland of fragrant flowers” and yet is cheap, “for nothing: one hundred yen”. There is a burst of music in the background of the cinematic adaptation of Madama Butterfly, conducted by Karakan and is similar to the tunes of the movie The Sound of Music which was placed against the backdrop of The World War , another epitomic example for colonial studies. There are colonial overtones of meaning being generated out of differences and a western viewing of the East where the West believes the native to be greatly affected by his presence, so much so that even the most sensible of the group might start scrambling in order to become one with western ways and ideas and this is blatant in Cio Cio San’s decision of going to the Christian