Saturday, September 17, 2011

Week 6 Farish


How do it and other Miyazaki films address the humanity/nature divide, according to Wright (2005)? Could Miyazaki’s vision be described as in some sense religious (inasmuch as it conveys a sense of the sacred)?

According to Wright (2005), Miyazaki addresses the divide through the film Princess Monoke by the conflict between industry humans and the gods of forests. Normally in his movies though there is a depiction where industrilisation is accepted as the reality of modern while preserving the love of nature, with humans living in tandem with it. In addition to this Miyazaki seems to destroy the idea of a pure heart, which is one of the aspects of Japanese cultural history which seems to refer to a culture purely formed from Japanese traditions without any foreign cultural contamination. Instead he seems to prefer both an integration as well as an appreciation of different elements of foreign culture. It does seem to hold the religion of Shinto as significant but at the same time, Miyazaki seems to ensure that his audiences are able to explore Shinto freely without the limited and biased views of religion.
 
Wright, L. (2005). Nature Spirits, Giant Insects and World Trees: the nature vision of Hayao Miyazaki. In the Journal of Religion of Popular Culture. Volume X: Summer 2005.

1 comment:

  1. I garee that he prefers and intergration as well as an appreciation of foreign culture.

    Couple of comma's missing!

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