Gigi’s Tipis

Abstract

As an autoethnography, Gigi’s Tipis experiments with the short-story format as a “new style” of qualitative investigation into family communication. Gigis Tipis presents narrative of family conventions and resistance as experienced by the author and her new family. When Jake’s girlfriend, Gigi, makes an offhanded joke that upsets his sister, a series of scenes unravel the family’s deep-seated tensions. Eventually miscommunication leads to no communication until Gigi takes matters into her own hands, revealing a family structure that has promoted dysfunction for at least a generation.