The promise of contrapuntal and intersectional methods for advancing critical interpersonal and family communication research

ABSTRACTThis article argues that contrapuntal analysis and intersectional analysis are particularly germane for realizing the emergent critical turn in interpersonal and family communication studies. Contrapuntal analysis is apropos for examining the multiple discourses and intersectional analysis for examining the embodied vectors of difference at play in contemporary interpersonal and familial communicative life. I organize my discussion of the promise of contrapuntal and intersectional methods around the four shifts espoused in the Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication (CIFC) framework. The CIFC framework calls for attention to power, bidirectionality between private and public realms, critique/resistance/transformation of the status quo in the service of social-justice ends, and author reflexivity.