Goffman's Dramaturgical Metaphors

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Goffman’s essay on face-work provides its reader with clear and concise explanations of social interaction. The theoretical framework he uses is micro sociology and his analysis takes on a dramaturgical perspective. He gives and precise definitions specific examples to get his point across. Goffman defines face as “the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact” (Goffman, p.5).

In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman (1959) focuses on the self as a staged production in which people actively present themselves to different audiences one encounters. To bolster his conceptualization, Goffman used an interesting metaphor of “all the world’s a stage” (1959, 254). This, he terms as a “dramaturgical approach” (Goffman 1959, 240) in which an actor puts on a show for others; drawing analogies between human behaviors and the theater. Goffman (1959) likens the individual to an actor on stage performing for and with other individuals involved in the situation. Three types of space exist for the actor to perform on, to enact the self, and to interact with others: the front stage, the backstage, the outer region. Goffman (1959) utilizes specific dramaturgical terms such as performance, teams, front and back regions, sign-vehicles, and highlights the process of dramatic realization. These terms will be discussed in the following sections.

In Erving Goffman’s book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, he bases his literature and knowledge off of dramatological theories. According to Goffman, an individual appearing before others is a performer appearing before his or her audience. These performers have many motives to put on an act enabling the possibility to control their impressions given off in their performance. He then furthers his belief within a given setting, there is no true self. On the contrary to Goffman’s work, Julia Woods explains the westernized view of self that each individual has a true inner identity. But, if we as performers have a true inner self, can we act consistent while being appropriate in a certain setting? This analysis will depict a

In “Presentations of Self in Everyday Life,” Goffman is constantly explaining how everyday life is a dramaturgy. A dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and essentially the production of a theatrical play. A social situation is much like a play. Every play has a stage, actors, a script, a set, rehearsals, and practices. In a social situation, the stage is where the encounter takes place, the actors are the people involved in the encounter, the script is the social norms of the social encounter, and the set is the environment where the encounter takes place. It takes practices and

Functionalist Erving Goffman studies the sociological approach of Dramaturgy in his book ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’ (Goffman, 1959), he built his theory based on earlier work completed by Kenneth Burke. However there are distinct differences in features of the theory between Burke and Goffman as Burke believed that life was in fact a literal

Finally the last element which Burke discusses is agency which is the theoretical points, he claims that the whole lot is realised through language. From these elements Goffman then went on to develop his own ‘dramaturgical’ investigations based on six themes: the performance, the team, the region, discrepant roles, communication out of the character and impression management. Nothing of Goffman’s dramaturgical world is quite what it seems. Rather, people are all portrayed as performers enacting rehearsed lines and roles in places that are carefully constructed in order to maximise the potential of deception. He then goes on to suggest that as performers people both ‘give’ and ‘give off’ impressions. It has been suggested that Goffman’s dramaturgical world is thus one of misdirection in which general suspicion is necessary; he developed an interest in espionage practices mainly because he recognised these as extensions of everyday behaviour. Goffman then went on to identify five moves in social interaction which are the ‘unwitting’, the ‘naïve’, the ‘covering’, the ‘uncovering’ and finally the ‘counter uncovering’ move (1959: 11-27). Each of these moves is designed either to achieve some advantage directly, or to reveal the strategies of other players. These moves are used in social worlds, or as Goffman called them, ‘situated activity systems’. Each is regulated by adopted norms known by system’s members. Rather than concentrating on the production of meanings, the

The Great Gatsby follows the experiences of Nick Carraway, who has moved from the Midwest to West Egg, Long Island, seeking fortune and new life. The story touches on subjects such as changing or reliving one’s past, love, and the American Dream. In the story, Carraway just so happens to move into a home next to that of Jay Gatsby, a relatively wealthy man known for throwing extravagant parties. Although Gatsby would throw these parties and have many visitors, not many of said visitors would have an opportunity to see Gatsby. In chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses specific words, images, and figurative language to develop the allure and glamour of wealth, as well as the destructiveness of the party.

In consideration of Goffman’s Dramaturgical Model of Interaction explore its contribution to our understanding of social interaction. In order to help you explain this you should illustrate your work with practical examples from everyday life.

Erving Goffman was a sociologist known for developing the symbolic interaction and dramaturgical theory perspective. The dramaturgical theory is a social psychological perspective that studies human behavior and social interaction in terms of the analogy of the theater. This perspective is also related to symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism is a theory based on interaction and communication, facilitated by many different words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired various meanings. Dramaturgical theorist focus on how people manipulate various aspects of themselves and their settings to influence how others define and respond to them. In this perspective, “the self” is constructed of the various roles that one acquires, in order to present their various selves in ways that sustain particular impressions to their audiences. “The self” is a private possession established in and reflective of an individual’s personality, which includes ones values, beliefs, motives, traits, and dispositions. In addition, a person’s “self” is acquired through social relationships and is a structurally fundamental process that may change due to various situations. As humans interact with one another they are placed in social categories based on their attributes and actions. These assessments are primarily based on ones knowledge of roles.

Erving Goffman is one of the most important American sociological theorist in the second half of the century and was also influenced by Durkheim, Freud, and Simmel in his work. He is well known for his analysis of human interaction which is now called “dramaturgical analysis”. Dramaturgical Analysis is the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance. For example, Goffman uses terms like “front”, “setting”, and “performance” when explaining his theory. The front is also known as the expressive equipment, intentional or unintentional kind employed by the performer. The setting is also part of the front and involves the physical layout like

Erving Goffman and other writers explain how and why people use impression management and audience segregations. They use the example of the world being a stage and how people are their audience. They describe the many ways people use roles and social position in impression management and audience segregation in their daily life’s. Sociologist Ervin Goffman along with other writers viewed the world as a stage. Goffman believed people would take on roles, “expectant behavior of people occupying particular positions.

When you are first introduced to the term sociological imagination, it may seem quite strange. Since many are unaware of what it may be, it is your Sociologist’s job to introduce you to what exactly a sociological imagination is, and help you

Goffman proposed dramaturgical perspective as a fifth paradigm for understanding and analysing society and social reality, for other four being technical, political, structural and cultural. (1959:233). Which positions dramaturgy within the ‘Symbolic Interactionist’ school of thought (although it overlaps with cultural theories), as it analyses society at a micro level through people’s everyday actions and interactions from an outside perspective, in contrast to macro structural based theories. Dramaturgy can be considered a theory of methodology, rather than a theory of society, offering a transferrable, flexible framework for context and situation specific qualitative research such as ethnography, auto-ethnography, field research and focus groups. This approach can uncover hidden meanings of the social world, which can be cohabiting as well as conflicting and provide the human capacity for deception as well as trust, morality, resistance and conformity.

Goffman was the first to introduce the topic of dramaturgy in his work. Dramaturgy is his idea that life is a play. The people are actors and the every day world around us is our stage. (1959, p.13) He uses the image of a theatre performance to express the behaviour of people in everyday social interactions. Although not always aware of it, every individual in a social situation is assigned a role in the performance. Every individual obtains a role in social interaction and the audience observes and reacts to the performance. Goffman discussed the three different regions of performance as the front stage, the back stage and off stage. Each region has a particular impact on one’s performance.