Eyes Unclouded: The Films of
Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli
May 8th 2019
Lewes, East Sussex, UK
Keynote speaker: Dr RaynaDenison (University of East Anglia,
author of Anime: A Critical Introduction)
“You must see with eyes unclouded
by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is
good. Pledge yourself to neither side, but vow instead to preserve the balance
that exists between the two” — Princess Mononoke
Hayao Miyazaki is an unusual
figure. Only Walt Disney rivals him in for closeness of his association with
the studio he co-founded. Unlike Disney, however, Miyazaki was also a director,
further complicating distinctions between individual and industrial authorship
in the works he helmed for Ghibli. Often fantastical, his films are also
intimately bound up with very real social and historical questions, ranging
from environmentalism, to the cultural politics of girlhood, to Japan’s role in
World War Two. Though identifiably Japanese, Ghibli is also nothing if not
transnational. The studio has developed adaptations of novels by Mary Norton,
Diana Wynne Jones, and Ursula K. Le Guin, and its characters have acquired an
on- and offline life of their own in multiple languages and markets; Hello
Kitty is arguably Japan’s only culture industry export to compete with Ghibli
for global penetration and recognition. Finally, Miyazaki’s anime blurs the
boundaries that are often imposed on the form both inside and outside the
academy. Films such as the Oscar and Golden Bear-winning Spirited Away challenge (western) perceptions of the cartoon as children’s entertainment, and
contemporary expectations of animation as a digital endeavor, all while
achieving both market success and critical acclaim. Perhaps part of their
appeal lies in their resistance to easy categorization.
This one-day symposium seeks to
bring together scholars to discuss the work of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. We
are open to proposals on all aspects of this topic, and from a broad variety of
perspectives. These could include issues of:
- Industrial and studio authorship
- The cultural politics of representation
- Material culture (e.g. the Ghibli Museum, merchandising)
- The transnational circulation, reception, and influence of these films
- Their digital afterlives.
This is just a small selection of
potential examples.
Please send proposals for
20-minute papers to the organizer, Dr Luke Robinson (luke.robinson @sussex.ac.uk) by March 31st
2019. Proposals should include a title, a 250-word abstract, and a brief author
biography.
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