The stories in Narrating Estrangement: Autoethnographies of Writing
Of(f) Family demonstrate the pain, anguish, and even relief felt by
those who contemplate estranging or who are estranged, whether by choice
or circumstance. Despite the social assumptions persisting about the
everlasting nature of family relationships, when people make the
complicated and often difficult decision to disconnect from family
members, they experience shame, stigma, and isolation because of social
pressures to maintain those relationships at all costs.
Each contributor uses the act of storytelling and the autoethnographic
mode of scholarship and writing to find clarity in their individual,
unique, and complex situations. Several authors' explorations restore
some of what they have lost through estrangement--such as a sense of
identity, emotional health and well-being, and feelings of
belonging--due to the breakdowns in social and family support systems
meant to be unconditional and "permanent." The stories display the wide
array of reasons why family members become estranged, delving into
different types of estrangement, permanent and/or intermittent. In doing
so, the writers in this book demonstrate that family relationships are
neither easily categorized nor neatly ended--their impact on an
individual's life continues and changes, even in and through
estrangement.
This book adds to the ongoing scholarly conversations about family
estrangement for students and researchers interested in autoethnography
and qualitative inquiry, in a wide range of disciplines in the social
sciences, healthcare, and communication studies.
