Symbolism in Howl's Moving Castle_Annotated Bibliography

Symbolism in Howl’s Moving Castle

Nicole Liao

Symbolism

• to imbue objects with a certain meaning that is different from their original meaning or function • other literary devices, such as metaphor, allegory, and allusion, aid in the development of symbolism • examples

Akimoto, Daisuke. “Howl’s Moving Castle in War on Terror: A Transformative Analysis of the Iraq War and Japan’s Responses.” ejcjs, vol. 14, iss. 2, 29 Jul 2014.

• Plot analysis • Character analysis • Transformative analysis method • Iraq war and the post-911 global political context • Japan‘s stance under this circumstance

O: Insights in interpreting the plot and characters X: too much political contents

Bye, Susan. “Connecting the pieces in Howl’s Moving Castle.” Screen Education, no.74, pp. 112-117.

• Movie review • Symbols: details worth discussing • The setting • The castle / the home • Family • Sophie’s change & changing others • Chaos and disorder

• The impact of changing circumstance • Not a dichotomy(⼆分法) between good and evil

O: symbolism is discussed in this article

Lyttle, John. "Kind of Magic." New Statesman, vol. 18, no. 879, 3 Oct 2005, pp. 46. ProQuest.

• Editorial • An overview of Miyazaki’s previous works • Gender stereotype • Sophie being domestic • Howl being a lady boy

• Anachronism(時代錯誤) • Irrelevant to the novel • Whales or France?

O: Sophie is domestic that relates to gender stereotype X: too much personal opinions

Osmond, Andrew. “Castles in the Sky.” Sight & Sound, vol. 15, no. 10, Oct 2005.

• Miyazaki’s philosophy in adapting works • Symbols

• Sophie’s transformation • Domesticity; everyday detail • Howl’s bedroom as a womb • Howl’s monstrous form

• Love under fire • Imagery • Implied • Asserted

• Miyazaki’s Self-reflection • Criticism of the ending: a lazy cheat • Misunderstanding about Miyazaki O: Symbols are discussed; critiques included; the big theme “love under fire” is discussed X: the self-reflection theory went too far

Sanchez, Dan. “Miyazaki’s Beautiful Antiwar Dreams.” Antiwar.com, 28 Apr 2015.

• Evidence: lines from the film • War: senseless and horrible • Comparison between Miyazaki’s film and traditional western fantasy • War • Protagonist • Antagonist • The result/ strategy

• Related historical contexts • WWII

• Repeated images O: providing evidence; the comparison between M’s films and traditional western fantasy in order to analyze the plot and characters

Smith, Lindsey. “War, Wizards, and Words: Transformative Adaptation and Transformed Meaning in Howl’s Moving Castle.” The Projector, vol. 11, iss. 1, 2011, pp. 36-56.

• Political background • Plot analysis • War • Invading every aspects of human life • Human are the victim/ the cause of the war

• Communication • The key to solve all problems

• Transformation O: analysis on how human relate to war X: I still cannot see how communication is the key to solve the problem