Accidental Ethnography: An Inquiry into Family Secrecy

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. It is often the accidental slip, the spontaneous discussion, the offhanded comment that opens this terrain of secrets to the conscientious storyteller. 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. Poulos's lyrical text will appeal to those in ethnography, interpersonal communication, and family relationships alike.

Christopher N. Poulos is associate professor of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.