Abstract
This article explores the question of whether islandness exists, and if so, how it can be defined. Using phenomenological methods, it examines a cultural text relevant to this question: the animated film Moana, which tells a story set on a small island. Following phenomenological procedures, any unexamined preconceptions about islandness are methodologically excluded through the suspension of judgment (epoché); islandness is defined as the “sense of place of the island” through a return to intersubjective intentionality (phenomenological reduction); the “essence” of this sense of place of the island is identified through imaginative variation (eidetic reduction). This discourse will shed light on islandness as a sense of place that encompasses both the isolation and connectedness of an island created by maritime immobility and mobility, which can be defined as a “global sense of place” that exists in connectedness but still maintains a substantial attachment to place. Moana is examined as a unique example for exploring phenomenological findings in a single case study, portraying the eponymous heroine’s search for connection beyond the island’s isolation while still maintaining its sense of place.
Recommended Citation
Kim, Taehee
(2024)
"A Phenomenological Study of Islandness as a Global Sense of Place: Focusing on the Animated Film Moana,"
Kritika Kultura:
No.
44, Article 10.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13185/1656-152x.1009
Available at:
https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss44/10
