Family Communication as... Exploring Metaphors for Family Communication

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.

JIMMIE MANNING is Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has authored over 100 publications including Researching Interpersonal Relationships: Qualitative Methods, Studies, and Analysis. He has received numerous teaching honors including the National Communication Association Outstanding Mentor in Master’s Education Award.

JORDAN ALLEN is Assistant Professor of Communication at Utah Valley University, where she teaches classes in interpersonal communication, family communication, research methods, and the dark side of interpersonal/family communication. Her program of research interrogates how nonnormative family relationships are symbolically and materially constituted in communication.

KATHERINE J. DENKER is Professor, Basic Course Director, and Director of Graduate Studies in Communication Studies at Ball State University. She has received the Organization for the Study of Language Communication and Gender (OSCLG) Feminist Teacher Mentor Award. Her research program centers on issues of power and marginalization in instructional and interpersonal relationships.