Relational Dialectics Among In-Laws

Prentice, Carolyn M.

doi:10.1080/15267430802561667

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The first wave of family communication research that used RDT illuminated the content and negotiation of relational tensions (also called contradictions or dialectics) in relationships, such as the tension husbands and wives feel between their desire to develop and maintain their relationship (connection) and their desire to maintain a sense of individuality (autonomy) (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996). Researchers informed by the first iteration of RDT have examined family communication in a variety of contexts, such as marital couples (Hoppe-Nagao & Ting-Toomey, 2002), in-laws (Prentice, 2009), bereaved parents (Toller, 2005), mother-daughter relationships (Coffelt, 2010), lesbian couples (Suter & Daas, 2007), stepchild-parent relationships (Braithwaite & Baxter, 2006;Braithwaite, Toller, Daas, Durham, & Jones, 2008), and post-marital relationships (Graham, 2003). In general, first-generation RDT studies identified tensions in relationships as well as praxis strategies for coping with relational turbulence surrounding them.…”

Section: Relational Dialectics Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational Dialectics Theory: A New Approach for Military and Veteran‐Connected Family Research

Parcell

Baker

2018

J of Family Theo & Revie

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Military and veteran‐connected family scholarship focusing on transitions has a lengthy history across disciplines. Much of this research involves normative military families (i.e., a service member husband and civilian wife with biological children); however, military families are diverse, due in part to societal and military policy changes (e.g., marriage equality; repeal of “don't ask, don't tell”). Although theories used in the past might still apply, we argue that critical theories are useful, even necessary, for studying the experiences of normative and nonnormative military families (e.g., those with same gender spouses or parents, stepfamilies), as both are nontraditional relative to their civilian counterparts. We share an approach developed within communication, relational dialectics theory (RDT), that focuses on power from a critical perspective and offers ideas for potential positive social change. RDT also provides contrapuntal analysis, a method ideal for studying relational turning points and transitional periods of military and veteran‐connected families.

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Section: Relational Dialectics Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational Dialectics Theory: A New Approach for Military and Veteran‐Connected Family Research

Parcell

Baker

2018

J of Family Theo & Revie

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“…Competing discourses of candor and discretion have been frequently reported in the RDT‐informed research on marriage (Baxter, Braithwaite, Golish, & Olson, 2002; Braithwaite & Baxter, 1995; Erbert, 2000; Hoppe‐Nagao & Ting‐Toomey, 2002; Pawlowski, 1998; Prentice, 2009; Stamp, 1994). Baxter (in press) has identified five different discourses that make sense of partners' acts of expression and nonexpression, but the discourses of individualism and community are arguably the most dominant.…”

Section: Competing Macrocultural Discourses Of Marriage: the Distal Amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Erbert (2000) found this radiant of meaning was especially salient in marital conflicts that involved decisions about holidays and occasions when the couple attempted to seek exclusive time together apart from others. Illustrative of the time distribution struggle is Prentice's (2009) study of relationships between married couples and their in-laws. Intelligible within a discourse of individualism, married couples expressed a desire to spend time alone as a couple, free of obligations to the in-law relations.…”

Section: The Identity Of Marriage As Dyadic Versus Socially Embeddedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dialogue of Marriage

Baxter

2010

J of Family Theo & Revie

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This article, framed in relational dialectics theory, argues for dialogic creativity as an alternative to extant companionate and institutional conceptualizations of marital quality. Dialogic creativity—dialogue—forecloses monologic calcification of meaning in marriage, including the evaluative judgment of what constitutes marital quality, through the ongoing interplay of competing discourses. Four potential discursive sites are discussed through the Bakhtinian concept of the utterance chain as a way to frame the kinds of discursive struggles that are prevalent in marriage; two of these discursive sites capture struggles among sociocultural discourses, and two capture struggles among idiosyncratic systems of meaning that reflect the unique history of a given marriage and the unique pattern of similarities and differences between partners in a given marriage. Dialogic creativity is enacted communicatively through three forms of dialogic expansion: diachronic separation, synchronic interplay, and hybrid and aesthetic‐moment enactments. The three kinds of communicative practices are contrasted with dialogically contractive monologue, in which a single monolithic discourse silences all competing discourses in the struggle of meaning.

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“…Studies on mother-in-law or daughter-in-law relationships, which make up the bulk of in-law research, have described the importance of 'linchpins' in triads (Morr Serewicz 2008:265) or the induction of 'newcomers' into family units (e.g. Prentice 2009). Studies of sister-in-law relationships in families are very rare.…”

Section: Language In Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘other woman’ in a mother and daughter relationship: The case of Mami Ji

Creese

Blackledge

2017

Lang. Soc.

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This article describes the range of discursive strategies in the socializing messages of a mother and daughter interaction. The analysis draws on the work of Bakhtin (1981) and Tannen (2007) to interrogate the role of a physically absent but discursively present sister-in-law, 'Mami Ji', across three speech events. Following Tannen, we show how the characterisation of the sisterin-law, Mami Ji, has chronotopic value that connects mother and daughter in the present and makes links across family histories. Through the discursive strategies of repetition, dialogue, detail, and translanguaging, 'Mami Ji' becomes an iconic benchmark of how not to speak, how not to dress, and how not to behave. Drawing on material from a linguistic ethnography approach, we present three discourse analyses from a much larger international project that also looked at classroom interaction and break-time conversations. The article contributes to the under-researched topic of the representation of sisters-in-law in discourse, theorises the chronotope in everyday conversation, and demonstrates how mother and daughter solidarity is achieved through opposition to another female family member. (Chronotope, linguistic involvement strategies, translanguaging, socialisation, sister-inlaws, mothers and daughters) I N T R O D U C T I O NMother and teenage daughter relationships are often reported as conflicted, argumentative, and confrontational-'relationship cockpits of gladiatorial combat' (Eagleton 2015:3). Much less is written about how they remain unified, connected, and sustained. Although the mother and daughter in this article face the usual minor tensions and conflicts, more apparent in their interactions is their orientation to sameness and connectedness. We present an interaction analysis of three interconnected speech events and describe how a mother and daughter create solidarity through distinguishing themselves from another woman and family member, 'Mami Ji'. The Panjabi kinship term for sister-in-law on the brother's side is Mami while Ji denotes formal respect. Mami Ji is therefore not the first name of the sister-inlaw in question, but the kinship term used throughout by mother and daughter to refer to a familial relationship.

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Relational Dialectics Among In-Laws

Cited by 21 publications

References 17 publications

Relational Dialectics Theory: A New Approach for Military and Veteran‐Connected Family Research

Relational Dialectics Theory: A New Approach for Military and Veteran‐Connected Family Research

The Dialogue of Marriage

The ‘other woman’ in a mother and daughter relationship: The case of Mami Ji

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