On The Subversion Of The Traditional Castle Image In Howl’s Moving Castle

The novel Howl’s Moving Castle written by contemporary British writer Diana WynneJones is once adapted to an animation with the same name by the Japanese animation masterMiyazaki Hayao. At the moment that the animation is fashionable in China, the original bookdraws attention from the public like a lotus flower rising from the water. Over the previousyears, partly have the researches on the animation Howl’s Moving Castle been done on theanimation techniques and the media publication of the animation. As is regarded to theoriginal Howl’s Moving Castle, however, much is still left to be explored in every aspect.The thesis discovers that Howl’s Moving Castle is imbued with the qualities of moving,magic, and ecology as the subversion and innovation to the archetype of castle space intraditional writings. Consequently, the thesis focuses on the subversion for the argumentationthrough the textual analysis of the prominent castle writings from the14th,15thand18thcenturies: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d’Arthur, and The Castle of Otranto,and makes comparison with the castle described in Howl’s Moving Castle. Based on thecritical theories of spatial narrative, narrative space, and ecocriticism, it discusses theoverturn of the traditional castle space from the castle space under Diana Wynne Jones’ pen,looking forward to expanding the research perspective of Howl’s Moving Castle.The thesis is composed of introduction, main body and conclusion. In the introduction,the thesis writer reviews the studies on Howl’s Moving Castle both at home and abroad,identifies the literary critical theories and purposes and puts forward the problems to besolved. Three chapters are included in the main body:Chapter One discusses the subversion at the level of space symbol by the moving castle.Through the analysis of the contrast of rove and dominance, returning and waiting, aloofnessand worldliness between the moving castle space under Jones’ pen and the castle space intraditional writings in terms of spatial symbol metaphor, this chapter argues the subversion ofthe traditional castle space in Howl’s Moving Castle from the aspects of living status, livingethics, and living ideal.Chapter Two explores the subversion at the level of space narration by the magical castle. Through the discussion of the contrast of synchronic space and diachronic space, theunknown space and the known space, becoming home and losing home between the magicalcastle space in Howl’s Moving Castle and the castle space in traditional writings in terms ofspatial narrative, this chapter argues the subversion of the traditional castle space in Howl’sMoving Castle from the aspects of psychological social reality, historical value, and spatialidentity.Chapter Three argues the subversion at the level of natural holism by the ecologicalcastle. Through the analysis of the contrast of dynamization and staticalization, inclusivenessand defensiveness, metaphysical poetry space and epic space between the ecological castlespace under Jones’ pen and the castle space in traditional writings in terms of natural holism,this chapter argues the subversion of the traditional castle in Howl’s Moving Castle from theaspects of space and life, survival philosophy, and poetic space.The thesis makes conclusion after the argumentation of the three chapters. Combiningwith the literary background of modernism in the20thcentury and the self-experience, theauthor Diana Wynne Jones makes innovation in her castle writing so as to reflect modernpeople’s living status, their spiritual roving, their strong complex of root-seeking andaspiration of spiritual accommodation, and their exploration of the ideal habitation. Theacademic significance of this thesis lies in its application of the space theory in the analysis ofthe novel Howl’s Moving Castle, which provides new perspective of the study about the novel,and maintains some creativity. Under the circumstance of globalization, people are living inthe status to move frequently from space to space. The thesis aims at inspiring people to findout the tranquility of spiritual accommodation.