ABSTRACT
In the Introduction to Narrating Estrangement: Autoethnographies of Writing Of(f) Family, the editors give us a glimpse of what it means to struggle with the stigma, guilt, and shame of being estranged from family members. They define estrangement and demonstrate how autoethnography and narrative inquiry are effective and impactful research methods for the book’s authors to bravely and vulnerably share reasons for and impacts of being estranged. The editors explore the ethics of telling stories that inherently implicate relational others and take turns discussing how they personally struggled with deciding what and how much to include in their own chapters. Finally, the editors reveal the themes and patterns that emerged from putting the included stories in conversation with each other which helped them organize the book into four discrete, yet interconnected sections.
