The haunting of the name: Memory and self-knowledge in Spirited Away

Abstract

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. In this film, the young heroine Chiriro entered an alternative world where she met Haku, the “No Face Man”, and the other characters. The presentation of these characters is constructed by stories of metamorphosis and representations of myths, legends, and folklores from diverse cultural backgrounds. With the metamorphosis of the parents of Chiriro into pigs, and that of the other characters into various forms, we may reflect on questions about identity, memory, and so as the singularity or banality of what constitutes the subject as human being– the principals that formulate the identity of a character – what is the mystery of the memory within oneself by that of another?

Questions about the name and the metamorphosis, these interrogations problematize the maintenance of a veritable “name”, and even the identity of a character. They stimulate numerous reflections on the influences coming from another culture. These influences do not always correspond to a voyage from Occidental to Oriental. Instead of insisting on the opposite categories between the two, this article aims to explore the relationship between memories from the past, the name, and the identity referring to the diversity of transcultural sources that contributes to a transcultural exchange in this film, while reflecting on an allegoric interpretation of the work in different cultural and social contexts.