Family Communication as... Exploring Metaphors for Family Communication

Jimmie Manning, Jordan Allen, Katherine J Denker, Jimmie Manning, Jordan Allen, Katherine J Denker

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781119668473
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

An innovative textbook that presents a novel and compelling examination of family communication studies

Family Communication as… Exploring Metaphors for Family Communication presents a series of metaphors through which students explore the nuances and complexities of family interaction. With a unique approach to the foundational theories and real-world practices of family communication, this easily accessible textbook helps students develop a clear understanding of what family communication is and what it can be.

Contributions by both prominent and newer scholars theorize about family communication, offer new perspectives, challenge long-held assumptions, and describe original research to provide students with an up-to-date representation of the leading thinking in the field. Each concise chapter focuses on a specific element of family life, engaging key metaphors to stimulate classroom discussion about family in contexts ranging from ritual and embodiment to estrangement and heteronormativity. Throughout the text, students examine family metaphorically—as memory, as social identity, as estrangement, as loss, as resilience, as raced, and more.

• Presents a metaphorical examination of creating, materializing, contextualizing, politicizing, and complicating family communication
• Offers an innovative alternative to standard textbooks on the subject
• Features a thorough introduction advocating for the use of metaphors in teaching
• Discusses the key topics and theoretical approaches that have defined the field
• Includes detailed references, additional readings, and an instructor's companion website

Family Communication as… Exploring Metaphors for Family Communication is an excellent textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses including family communication, family studies, interpersonal communication, relational communication, and communication theory. It is also a highly useful resource for scholars in fields such as media studies, psychology, sociology, social work, counseling, and public health.

Table of contents

• Family Communication as…
• Contents
• About the Editors
• List of Contributors
• 1 Family Communication as Choice: Thinking about and Theorizing Family
• 2 Family Communication as Relationship
• 3 Family Communication as Ritual
• 4 Family Communication as Biology
• 5 Family Communication as Maintenance
• 6 Family Communication as Transition
• 7 Family Communication as Social Identity
• 8 Family Communication as Heteronormative
• 9 Family Communication as Raced
• 10 Family Communication as Embodied
• 11 Family Communication as Performance
• 12 Family Communication as Narrative
• 13 Family Communication as Dialogue
• 14 Family Communication as Object Nishani: Mother Objects in Other Worlds
• 15 Family Communication as Memory
• 16 Family Communication as Boundary
• 17 Family Communication as Organization
• 18 Family Communication as Health
• 19 Family Communication as Mediated
• 20 Family Communication as (an) Art
• 21 Family Communication as Argument
• 22 Family Communication as Deviance
• 23 Family Communication as Taboo
• 24 Family Communication as Failure
• 25 Family Communication as Death
• 26 Family Communication as Forgiveness
• 27 Family Communication as Support
• 28 Family Communication as Resilience
• Index