Solarpunked Landscapes of the (Post)Industrial Apocalypse: Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Keywords: Industrial Heritage, Solarpunk, Science Fiction, Waste, Agency
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Industrial heritage can be found across the planet as mechanized and capitalist extractive industries have replaced subsistence labor and lifestyles. In human geography and history, a recent trend towards embracing our place as scholars in the humanities has drawn attention to the performativity of industrial heritage. Such work has demonstrated that a focus on the material landscape of industrial heritage too often obscures broader cultural narratives and forms of engagement with our industrial past. Just as works such as How Green Was My Valley inspired and reflected an “agrarian return” in the early and mid-19th century, how might other fictional works engage, influence, or even be classified themselves as industrial heritage? Beyond historical or realist fiction, speculative fiction also explores industrial pasts and legacies, as well as alternative ways of living in a world altered by industrialization. Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - initially published as a manga from 1980-82 - explores the aftermath of industrial violence. Set one thousand years post-apocalypse, Nausicaä juxtaposes the geopolitical control of land, nature, and people with a sentient post-industrial forest, and commentates on broader global patterns of industrial waste-making. This paper explores the dissolution of a human-environment binary in the context of the industrial heritage presented in the manga and its adaptations.