[csaa-forum] Fecemi la Divina Potestate: Theological Worldmaking in Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (2023), Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Western Mythology

[Rosemary Overell]

Kia ora koutou,

Please join us next week as part of the Media, Film & Comms Programme Research Seminar Series 2025, as we welcome Dr Katie Marcar from the University of Otago’s Theology Programme – Tuesday 6th May at 4pm NZT / 1pm AEST in Burns 4. Details and Zoom registration follow:

Title: Fecemi la Divina Potestate: Theological Worldmaking in Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (2023), Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Western Mythology

Abstract: The words “fecemi la divina potestate” inscribed above the dark tunnel in Hayao Miyazaki’s 2023 film The Boy and the Heron signal one of the important literary influences on the film, Dante’s masterpiece the Divine Comedy. In dialog with Denys Turner’s Dante the Theologian, this paper seeks to examine the influence of the Divine Comedy on The Boy and the Heron as an opportunity to engage in a Christian theological reading of Miyazaki’s film. Both Dante and Miyazaki create fantastical worlds that are at times beautiful, breathtaking and frightening. These worlds are embodiments of their characters’ (and creators’) psychological, anthropological, and spiritual belief systems. This paper seeks to bring these worlds into a constructive dialog that provides a deeper appreciation of the theological realities reflected in The Boy and the Heron and its diverse influences. WARNING: This paper will contain SPOILERS!

Zoom registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSex6NgrHn01G3H4N9LqEf-nbOWa30tSB4eAxwRstuqw66f7UQ/viewform?usp=sharing

All welcome!



Rosemary Overell<https://www.otago.ac.nz/mfco/staff/rosemaryoverell.html>
Pūkenga Matua | Senior Lecturer
Pāpāho, Whitiāhua, Pārokoroko | Media, Film & Communication Programme
Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka | The University of Otago
Otepoti | Dunedin
Aotearoa New Zealand
9054

Latest publications:
Overell, R. (2024). ‘Don’t Worry Darling: The anxious question of what women want after #MeToo’. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-024-00461-5
Millar, I., Nicholls, B., Overell, R., & Tutt, D. (2023). Power and politics in Adam Curtis' Can't get you out of my head: An emotional history of the modern world. In C. Owens & S. Meehan O'Callaghan (Eds.), Psychoanalysis and the small screen: The year the cinemas closed<https://www.routledge.com/Psychoanalysis-and-the-Small-Screen-The-Year-the-Cinemas-Closed/Owens-OCallaghan/p/book/9781032223223>. (pp. 163-189). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Overell, R. (2022). Methodological Masturbation<https://lackorg.com/2022/08/26/methodological-masturbation/>. LACK: punctual musings. 26th August.

Google Scholar<https://scholar.google.co.nz/citations?user=ZW7oyEAAAAAJ&hl=en>
LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemary-overell-047786222>

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