Language and masculinity

Abstract

The unexpected use of Osaka dialect in the 2013 film Like Father, Like Son directed by Hirokazu Kore’eda, presents an opportunity to scrutinise its role in indexingmasculinity, class and fatherhood. The film depicts two styles of fatherhood: one, a cool and disconnected father representing the archetypal upper-middle class but absent salaryman patriarch; the other, a warm and emotionally connected father representing a new kind of patriarch who is engaged in child rearing. These contrasting styles are indexed linguistically through standard Japanese and Osaka dialect respectively. Extending the framework of a sociolinguistics of the periphery to a case of internal language variation, the mobility of Osaka dialect is highlighted. Specifically, through the process of translocalisation, the enregistered indices of Osaka dialect mediate the creation of a new social type: the caring and connected father.