Animation and “Otherness”: the Politics of Gender, Racial, Ani) Ethnic Identity in the World of Japanese Anime
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ANIMATION AND “OTHERNESS”: THE POLITICS OF GENDER, RACIAL, ANI) ETHNIC IDENTITY IN THE WORLD OF JAPANESE ANIME by KAORI YOSHIDA B.A., Seinan Gakuin University, 1992 M.Ed., Fukuoka University of Education, 1996 M.A., University of Calgary, 1998 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA VANCOUVER August 26, 2008 © KAORI YOSHIDA, 2008 ABSTRACT In the contemporary mass-mediated and boundary-crossing world, fictional narratives provide us with resources for articulating cultural identities and individuals’ woridviews. Animated film provides viewers with an imaginary sphere which reflects complex notions of “self’ and “other,” and should not be considered an apolitical medium. This dissertation looks at representations in the fantasy world of Japanese animation, known as anime, and conceptualizes how media representations contribute both visually and narratively to articulating or re-articulating cultural “otherness” to establish one’s own subjectivity. In so doing, this study combines textual and discourse analyses, taking perspectives of cultural studies, gender theory, and postcolonial theory, which allow us to unpack complex mechanisms of gender, racial/ethnic, and national identity constructions. I analyze tropes for identity articulation in a select group of Disney folktale-saga style animations, and compare them with those in anime directed by Miyazaki Hayao. While many critics argue that the fantasy world of animation recapitulates the Western anglo-phallogocentric construction of the “other,” as is often encouraged by mainstream Hollywood films, my analyses reveal more complex mechanisms that put Disney animation in a different light. Miyazaki’s texts and their symbolic ambiguities challenge normalized gender and race/ethnic/nationality representations, and undermine the Western Orientalist image of the “Asian Other.” His anime also destabilize the West-East binary, by manifesting what Homi Bhabha calls a space “in-between”—a disturbance of the dominant system of identity categorizations. This suggests that media representation acts not only as an ideological tool that emphasizes conventional binaries (e.g. “Western”=masculine, “Oriental”feminine), but also as a powerful tool for the “other” to proclaim an alternative identity and potentially subvert dominant power structures. Miyazaki’s anime also reveal the process of Japan’s construction of both the West and the rest of Asia as “others,” based on the West-Japan-Asia power dynamic. I argue that this reflects Japan’s experience of being both colonizer and colonized, at different points in history, and that Japan also articulates “other” through anime to secure its national identity. My dissertation will contribute to the understanding of mechanisms of subjectivity construction in relation to visual culture. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List ofTables v List of Figures vi Acknowledgements ix Note to Readers x Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Identity Articulation in Media Fantasy 15 1.1. Identity Articulation through Media Narratives: reinforcing the dominant view 17 1.1.1. The subject as susceptible to the ideological apparatus of visual representation 17 1.1.2. Construction ofthe racial “Other”: Edward Said 21 1.1.3. The politics of vision and the articulation of “Self” and “Other” 25 1.1.4. Stereotyping: a strategy for creating raced and gendered “others” . .28 1.1.5. The gendering/sexualizing of race and the construction of “yellowness” 29 1.2. The Subversive Power ofMedia Representations 33 1.2.1. Subversion by the “other”: power and resistance in liminal space . ..34 1.3. Conscious Perception and the Embodied Experience of Visual Media 48 Chapter 2: Studies ofAnimation and Anime 53 2.1. The Development of Animation and Some of Its Characteristics 55 2.1.1. Definition of animation 55 2.1.2. The development of animation in the West 58 2.1.3. Animation as a myth-making tool 62 2.1.4. Subversive characteristics ofanimation: examples in the West 69 2.2. 9 What is Anime 73 2.2.1. The history of anime and anime research 74 2.2.2. Characteristics and types ofanime 76 2.2.3. Anime and the (re)articulation ofnational/racial identity 83 2.2.4. The role of the “shöjo” in gender/sexual identity articulation and its evolution 87 2.3. Anime as an “Other(’s)” Cultural Form 98 Chapter 3: Miyazaki Hayao’s Philosophy of Animation Aesthetics 99 3.1. The Foundation of Miyazaki’s Fantasy 101 3.2. Miyazaki’s Aesthetics (1): what is anime to him9 104 111 3.3. Miyazaki’ s Aesthetics (2): Miyazaki’ s Occidentalist and self-Orientalist views 118 3.4. The Reception ofAnime outside Japan and “Japaneseness” 128 Chapter 4: Western Orientalism & Japanese Occidentalism Aladdin, Nausicaä ofthe Valley ofthe Win and Porco Rosso 132 4.1. Aladdin (1992): manifestation ofclassic Western Orientalism 134 4.1.1. The Oriental “Other” as peril and domestication ofthe “Other” 140 4.1.2. The mechanisms of gendering, sexualizing, and racializing ofthe “other” 144 4.1.3. Color complex: embracing “whiteness” and posing as white 152 4.1.4. Can “parody” work?: difficulty in deconstructing “race” 155 4.2. Construction ofthe Western “Other” (1): Kaze no tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä ofthe Valley ofthe Wind) (1984) 157 4.2.1. Representation ofthe Western “Other” in Nausicaã 160 4.2.2. Hybridization in the imaginary 167 4.2.3. Politics of vision: the Western “Other” 9 as a spectacle 168 4.2.4. (Re)discovery of empowered women 170 4.3. Kurenai no buta (Porco Rosso) (1992) 174 4.3.1. Fantasy toward the Western “Other”: another form of Occidentalism 176 4.4. Persistence of Orientalism and Resistance ofOccidentalism 180 ChapterS: Pocahontas & Princess Mononoke: “Others” in Reconstructed History 184 5.1. Using History to Re-create the Nation’s “Other”: Pocahontas (1995) 184 5.1.1. Perpetuation ofwhite “Self” and “red (native) Other” 186 5.2. “Others” within “Traditional Japan” and the Exploitation of History: Mononoke hime (Princess Mononoke) (1997) 207 5.2.1. Representation of “others”: subversion of Orientalism and self-Orientalism 208 5.2.2. History as a site for subversion 217 Chapter 6: Western (Re)Orientalism and Oriental Orientalism- Mulan & SpiritedAway 232 6.1. Perception of“Yellowness”: Mulan (1998) 232 6.1.1. Re-inscribing the yellow “Other”: mythologizing and feminizing East Asia 234 6.2. Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Hierarchies: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (SpiritedAway) (2001) 252 6.2.1. Subversion ofthe Orientalist view ofthe East and West 254 6.2.2. Cultural hybridity & confusion ofnational identity 260 6.2.3. The mechanism ofvision in the spirit world: look & gaze 268 6.3. A Third Space: matrix of(re)Orientalism, Oriental Orientalism, and hybridized space for identity articulation 271 Conclusion: Can Japan Speak? 274 Bibliography 294 iv A SET U!PPlV U! SJO4OP O3!0A pUn siaonsnqo UflJAJ t, oIp3 SWIUVI JO ISfl LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1. Jasmine’s perfect “hourglass figure,” Aladdin (Disney) 145 Figure 4.2. Jasmine’s seductive eyes toward Aladdin, Aladdin (Disney) 146 Figure 4.3. Jasmine’s seductive eyes toward Jafar, Aladdin (Disney) 146 Figure 4.4. Jafar (sordid skin tone), Aladdin (Disney) 148 Figure 4.5. Jafar and his cobra-headed scepter, Aladdin (Disney) 148 Figure 4.6. The sultan ofAgrabah, father of Jasmine, Aladdin (Disney) 150 Figure 4.7. The sultan put a clown costume by Jafar, Aladdin (Disney) 150 Figure 4.8. Shan Yu (the evil leader ofthe Runs), Mulan (Disney) 152 Figure 4.9. Aladdin, Aladdin (Disney) 155 Figure 4.10. Jasmine, Aladdin (Disney) 155 Figure 4.11. Razoul, Aladdin (Disney) 155 Figure 4.12. Tapestry in the opening sequence, Nausicaã ofthe Valley ofthe Wind (Studio Ghibli) 158 Figure 4.13. Tapestry in the opening sequence, Nausicaã ofthe Valley ofthe Wind (Studio Ghibli) 158 Figure 4.14. Nausicaä riding on the flying device “mehve,” Nausicaã ofthe Valley ofthe Wind(Studio Ghibli) 161 Figure 4.15. The Giant God Soldier (kyoshinhei), Nausicaä ofthe Valley ofthe Wind (Studio Ghibli) 163 Figure 4.16. Nausicaä collecting poisonous spores, Nausicaä ofthe Valley ofthe Wind (Studio Ghibli) 163 Figure 4.17. NausicaA’s laboratory, Nausicaã ofthe Valley ofthe Wind (Studio Ghibli) 163 Figure 4.18. Nausicaa’s resurrection in the golden meadow, Nausicaä ofthe Valley ofthe Wind(StudioGhibli) 164 Figure 4.19. Nausicaä in the battle with invaders who murdered her father, Nausicaä ofthe Valley ofthe Wind (Studio Ghibli) 172 Figure 5.1. Leaves swirling around Pocahontas and Smith, Pocahontas (Disney) 190 Figure 5.2. Shishigami (Forest God) during day, Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) 209 Figure 5.3. The Lake ofShishigami, Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) 209 Figure 5.4. Grotesque tatarigami transformed from a boar, Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) 215 Figure 5.5. Shishigami (daytime) close-up, Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) 215 Figure 5.6. Shishigami (night time), Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) 215 Figure 5.7. San’s mouth covered with blood, Princess Mononoke (Studio Ghibli) 223 Figure 5.8. Storyboard descriptions of San, Princess Mononoke: The Original Storyboard 223 Figure 6.1. Captain Shang’s action and body, Mulan (Disney) 236 Figure 6.2. Chi Fu, the councilor, Mulan (Disney) 238 Figure 6.3. Dr. Fu Manchu, Mulan (Disney) 238 Figure 6.4. Chi Fu’s mannerisms: going to bathe, Mulan (Disney) 239 Figure 6.5. Feminized Chi Fu: scared by panda, Mulan (Disney) 239 vi Figure 6.6. Childish behavior of Chien-Po, Ling, Yao, Mulan (Disney) 240 Figure 6.7. The gang ofthe three disguised as women, Mulan (Disney) 241 Figure 6.8. Close-up ofLing disguised, Mulan (Disney) 241 Figure 6.9. Mushu, the dragon, as a caricature of Chinese tradition (or Asia), Mulan (Disney) 246 Figure 6.10. Woman dressed as Disney’s Mulan at Plaza Inn, Hong Kong Disneyland 251 Figure 6.11.