Princess Mononoke from the Perspective of Spivak's Postcolonial Feminism
Abstract
Since its release, Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke has often been interpreted within the frameworks of ecocriticism and feminism, but existing studies often neglect its implicit power structures. To overcome this limitation, this paper employs Gayatri Spivak's postcolonial feminist theory to critically reread the film. Through an analysis of the three main characters—Lady Eboshi, San, and Ashitaka—this paper finds that: Lady Eboshi's "female utopia," Tatara, is actually based on the plunder of the forest, and her discourse replicates the imperialist logic of conquering the "other"; San, as a "cultural hybrid" rejected by both humans and beasts, is trapped of being a "subaltern," and her resistance is assumed as irrationality by the dominant discourse; while Ashitaka's mediator role implicitly contains the "savior" narrative criticized by Spivak, weakening the subjectivity of female characters. The study shows that there is a complex relationship of oppression in Princess Mononoke, and Spivak's theory can help reveal this relationship.
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