Styling Hawai‘i in Haole wood: White protagonists on a voyage of self discovery

Abstract

This article analyzes four Hollywood films set inHawai'i to shed light on how particular languages and language varieties style (Auer 2007; Coupland 2007) LocaltHawaiian and mainland U.S. characters as certain kinds of people. Through an analysis of films featuring haolt ('white, outsider') male protagonists who are on various journeys in Hawai'i, we analyze how cultural difference is constructed through divergent language choice, mock languages, and acts of linguistic bridging by quasi-Local characters. We draw upon Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles & Coupland 1991) to explain how linguistic divergence establishes dichotomous characterizations through language choice and other non-accommodating behaviors. As our analysis shows, Hollywood styling perpetuates Orientalist discourses (Said 1978) about 'whiteness' and 'nativeness' by dichotomizing Local and Hawaiian people, and by characterizing Local characters as largely antagonistic toward, outsiders. At the same time, the films attempt to avoid too close a linkage to colonialist discourses by establishing quasiLocal haole characters as linguistic 'buffers' who act as conduits for Hawaiian worldviews and Local knowledge, and who are styled linguistically as partially Local through their knowledge of Hawai'i Creole and Hawaiian.

Wax on, wax off: mediatized Asian masculinity through Hollywood martial arts films

“…Traits that index such masculinity include the Asian heroes' reticence and use of formulaic or philosophical speech styles. The observations follow in the tradition of linguistic anthropological work (e.g., Bucholtz 2011;Higgins and Furukawa 2012;Hill 1993;Hiramoto 2011;Inoue 2003;Jaffe 2011;Lippi-Green 2012[1997 ;Meek 2006;Queen 2004;Ronkin and Karn 1999) which describes how specific speech styles are mapped onto specific racialized or ethnicized bodies through processes of semioticization in entertainment products such as movies, TV shows, novels, or online joke websites. Scholars have proposed that widespread reiterations of these speech styles lead to naturalization of stereotypical racial and gender representations.…”

“Mista, Are You in a Good Mood?”: Stylization to Negotiate Interaction in an Urban Hawai’i Classroom

“…Historically perceived as a marker of local (non-white) and working-class identity, it has been seen as a barrier to socio-economic mobility and with a general sense of stigmatization when used in educational and professional contexts (Sato 1989). Despite this public awareness of HC's stigmatization, however, there are many accounts of speakers using it in a wide range of contexts and expressing pride in using it as a marker of local identity (Higgins & Furukawa 2012;Marlow & Giles 2010).…”