Ecolinguistic Analysis of Princess Mononoke: Boosting Environmental Literacy

The Anthropocene is a term some scientists use for the current geological age, during which human activities profoundly and often negatively impact Earth’s systems, including environmental change. Despite widespread recognition of this global crisis, a gap persists between awareness and meaningful action, underscoring a critical deficit in environmental literacy. This study aims to address this gap by conducting an ecolinguistic analysis of Hayao Miyazaki’s (1997) film, Princess Mononoke. Stibbe’s (2020) Stories We Live By, particularly the story of ideology, was used to analyze the film and its five principal human characters, examining their attitudes and behavior, and connecting them to the situation of modern humans. The analysis reveals a spectrum of ecological ideologies—from extreme anthropocentrism to radical ecocentrism—and discusses how the film’s narrative complexity models the ideological conflicts that characterize modern environmental debates. The results suggest that while Princess Mononoke and its ecolinguistic analysis afford valuable opportunities for classroom critical discussion on competing worldviews about nature, full interventions to promote ecological awareness and pro-environmental behavior require careful pedagogical design and empirical validation. The study calls for future empirical evidence from film-based ecolinguistic analysis that not only serves as a medium for enhancing environmental literacy but also stimulates critical engagement with the stories that shape humans’ relationship with the more-than-human world.