Shows the embodied contexts of storytelling, the material constraints on narrative performances, and the myriad ways storytelling orders information and tasks, constitutes meanings, and positions speaking subjects. This book explores what stories families tell, how they tell them, and how storytelling creates family identities.

They explore what stories families tell, how they tell them, and how storytelling creates family identities. Then, they show the range and reach of this strategic model by examining storytelling in diverse contexts: a breast cancer narrative, a weblog on the Internet, and an autobiographical performance on the public stage. Readers are left with a clear understanding of how and why the performance of narrative is the primary communicative practice shaping our lives today.Kristin M. Langellier is Mark and Marcia Bailey Professor at the University of Maine where she teaches communication and women's studies. A former editor of "Text and Performance Quarterly", she has published numerous journal articles on personal narrative, family storytelling, and Franco American cultural identity. Eric E. Peterson is Associate Professor at the University of Maine where he teaches communication. He is coeditor of a recent book on public broadcasting and has published a variety of journal articles on narrative performance, media consumption, and communication diversity and identity.

Acknowledgments Part I. A Communication Approach to Storytelling 1. Performing Narrative in Daily Life Part II. Family Storytelling: A Strategy of Small Group Culture 2. Ordering Content and Making Family Stories 3. Family Storytelling: Ordering Tasks in Small Group Cultures 4. Performing Families: Ordering Group and Personal Identities Part III. Storytelling Practices: Three Case Studies 5. Storytelling in a Weblog: Performing Narrative in a Digital Age 6. Breast Cancer Storytelling: The Limits of Narrative Closure in Survivor Discourse 7. Performing Narrative on Stage: Identity and Agency in an Autobiographical Performance Coda Notes References Index