After tossing ideas around in my head for a few weeks now and considering a wide variety of topics of study within the Family Communication field, I recognized what type of subject matter I do want to study and the type of subject matter I do not want to study. Some of the potential topics were: masculinity and femininity influences, sibling rivalry, the father-son dyad, the mother son-dyad, family and leisure, and family in crisis. I felt that each one of these topics would be interesting, revealing, and redeeming, but most importantly, helpful. I also felt that these topics have, for the most part, a universal appeal and applicability, but none of them rang true for me; none of them directly pertained to my family’s role in my life. Knowing that I would be spending much of time studying a particular dimension of family communication, and being a member of a family, as well, I knew I wanted to study a dimension that directly correlates to my way of life as a family member. The topic I am choosing to focus on is family storytelling.
There are several reasons why this topic appeals to me. Firstly, I believe that storytelling serves an important function in the family. Among other things, it bonds, renews, celebrates, socializes, and creates the family as a living and breathing system. Family storytelling certainly is a vital component in the family chemistry, but it is also a vital component of the individual. Stories reveal who we are as people. They also can hide who we are. Another reason I want to focus on the role that storytelling plays in the family stems from one of my personal passions, fiction writing, or storytelling, and one of my favorite subjects to concentrate on is the family dynamic. So by studying storytelling within the family, I am studying my preferred art form from a new perspective.
In order to properly analyze the role of storytelling in the family, I will need to study number of applicable theories. One of these will play an important...