Madame Butterfly is best-known from Puccini's 1904 opera. A team of professors of English, music, and theatre, film, and creative writing at the U. of British Columbia introduce this colonial
Western construction of exotic Oriental femininity and submissiveness. Contributors to 13 essays explore this myth in various media and cultural contexts. E.g., in M. Butterfly, the 1988 play
by David Henry Hwang, and its 1993 cinematic adaptation by David Cronenberg of The Fly fame, Madame Butterfly's and Lieutenant Pinkerton's roles are reversed. The book includes a chronology,
excerpts from a workshop on Hwang's play, musical score excerpts, and illustrations relating to Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysanth癡me, an early version of this story. Annotation 穢2007 Book News,
Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
