Accidental Ethnography: An Inquiry into Family Secrecy

by Christopher N. Poulos

Overview

Each family has its secrets, ones that shape family communication and relationships in a way generally unknown to the outsider and often the family itself. Autoethnographers, students of these relationships, confront many silences in their attempts to understand these social worlds.

Now issued as a Routledge Education Classic Edition, Accidental Ethnography delves into this shadowy world of pain and loss in the hopes of finding productive, ethical avenues for transforming the secret lives of families into powerful narratives of hope. It merges autoethnographic method with the therapeutic power of storytelling to heal family wounds.

A new preface text by the author reflects on the changes in the field of qualitative research and on his own research journey since the publication of the original edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138325487
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/15/2018
Series:	Routledge Education Classic Edition
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Christopher N. Poulos is Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. An ethnographer and philosopher of communication, he teaches courses in friendship and family communication, ethnography, dialogue, and film. His writing has been featured in prominent journals such as Qualitative Inquiry, International Review of Qualitative Research, Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, Communication Theory, and Storytelling, Self, Society, and in several edited books. His book, Accidental Ethnography: An Inquiry into Family Secrecy, was published by Left Coast Press, and won the 2011 Best Book Award from the National Communication Association’s Ethnography Division.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Classic Edition. Foreword. Preface. Overview of the Book. Acknowledgments. Chapter 1. Family Secrets. Chapter 2. Accidental Ethnography. Chapter 3. Dreaming Autoethnography. Chapter 4. Out of the Shadows. Chapter 5. Evoking Archetypal Themes in an Ethnographic Life. Chapter 6. The Storied Life and the Courage to Connect. Epilogue. References. Index.

Editorial Reviews

"What makes this book's applications unique is their ability to make students, including those of us who think of ourselves as lifelong learners, to think on a higher level of reflective engagement. . . . What you have in your hands a truly remarkable story that will engage, I have no doubt, your most creative and intellectual energies." -H. L. Goodall, Jr., Arizona State University

"...Poulos constantly reminds us that what he is writing about is as much about the reader as it is about the author. He encourages us to engage in the journey he has undertaken, to write our stories as he writes his. In fact, many times I had to pause in my reading of his book to write my own accounts, something that I think would make Poulos feel as if his project is fulfilled. And in that writing, in that story-telling, often spurred by some accidental trigger I found in his book, we both begin to find some place of healing. Poulos ends his book by finding peace through writing; by allowing the moments to flow into his writing, he finds that writing gave him the home he was looking for."...—Southern Communication Journal

From the Publisher