[Commlist] CFP: Eyes Unclouded: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

*University of Sussex and the Lewes Depot Cinema present the 2019 
Contemporary Directors Symposium*

**

*Eyes Unclouded: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli*

**

*May 8^th 2019, Lewes Depot Cinema, Lewes, East Sussex, UK*

**

Keynote speaker: *Dr Rayna Denison*

(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; or 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 /at/ sussex.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(luke.robinson /at/ sussex.ac.uk)>) by March 31^st 2019. Proposals 
should include a title, a 250-word abstract, and a brief author biography.

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