goffmans dramaturgical approach

Adolf Hitler is one of the most notorious villains in all of history for his unspeakable crimes against humanity, but how he came to be so powerful is not often known. He effectively attained utmost power through both self-activation, and his ability to acclimate to the social conditions posed in Germany at this time. Hitler rose to sovereignty on the strength of his personality and vision, and through a tactic called coercive power. His followers swore allegiance to him and no one else. Adolf Hitler used the weakness of Germany’s socioeconomic status, resentment felt by most German inhabitants towards their governments’ choices and actions, and the incompetence of The Weimar Government to aid his accession.

Erving Goffman was a Canadian-American sociologist who had a great influence on the development of modern American sociology. Goffman was most well-known for his work on Dramaturgy; some elements may include performance, impression management, sign vehicles and sign activity, and many more. One of the great works by Goffman was his book the presentation of self in everyday life.

In this critical article review, an analysis of Kater’s (1981” article “Hitler in a Social Context” will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the sociological aspects of Hilter’s rise to power during the Third Reich. Kater’s motivation for writing this article is primarily based on the need form of comprehensive socio-historical or sociological evaluation of Hitler, which will define the charismatic effects of Hitler’s leadership in the rise of Nazi power. In a historiographical context, various biographers and social historians have examined Hitler, but the overarching social background of Hitler’s rise through class analysis and an examination of psychological states is an important variable in Kater 's article. For instance, one famous biographer of Hitler, Alan Bullock, is criticized for not providing a more comprehensive sociological examination of Hitler in terms of class status, psychological background, and the social environment:

To understand Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, one must first understand the society historical background in Germany. In 1918, which was

Dramaturgy is an essential and significant fragment of both stagecraft and theatre itself, it serves to analysis and explore the dramatic structure of the play or performance that is being prepared or analysed and presented. In traditional theatrical turn of phrase, a dramaturge can be broken down as an rational deviser, or a associate of the production team who is bothered with the way in which the concepts, subjects and the ideas of a play are reflected on stage. The role of the dramaturge is both multifaceted and open to change, shaping and re-shaping to encounter the required needs of the theatre company, or of the specific production in question. A dramaturge may be called upon to complete a wide variety of tasks in the theatre. These

Besides Gramsci, Marcuse, and Chakrabarty, another person that makes me think about structure and agency is Goffman. According to his dramaturgical analysis, people are all actors and actresses performing on the stage. At the front stage, with the help of props and nonverbal communications, people behave or perform accordingly based on their roles. People put on different masks when they interact with different people, and there are certain elements that they do not want others to see when they are at the back stage (Goffman 1956). For example, a man might be at all the same times a father, a son, a religious devotee, a teacher, a volunteer, an avid rock music fan, a photographer, and a vlogger. At all these different roles, he might present himself differently. He might be a caring and considerate father who enjoys cooking for his family, but at the meantime he might be a very serious teaching who always wears suit and tie and seldom smiles in class. In the meantime, he sings along and dance crazily at a rock music concert, and as a vlogger he always speaks funny on YouTube. On the hand, we can say that all his behaviors are determined by the structure, because the structure or the collective consciousness determines what is appropriate or inappropriate at different settings. On the other hand, his agency jumps in and makes the decisions of whether or not he performs the role in the most socially accepted ways. In fact, while he performs the different roles differently in

Goffman introduces us to the concept of dramaturgy in regards to the development of the social Self (and therefore to Gender Identity). For Goffman, dramaturgy is how the individual becomes a performer in public/quasi-public settings, and their surrounding environment by default become an audience. He focuses on the dynamic between the two, especially on how the performer must manage their impression to win audience approval. To fail at garnishing such approval means risking the entire social setting. (This builds upon, or at least references, Cooley’s Mirror Self in that one turns to others to understand one’s self in a social situation).

With political power in front of him and possibly a dictatorship a new man steps up to the political campaign. He rules with the vile hatred of the Jews and the pursuit of complete world dominance on his radar. His name sends fear and terror through the eyes of all those who encounter him. His name is Adolf Hitler a man known for his political abuse and dictatorship. Adolf Hitler lived in a time of political opportunity, however, he abused his power to accomplish the things that he desired and eventually brought down Germany with himself.

Goffman uses actors and the theater to understand something about individuals and the way they interact in everyday life. In his conclusion, Goffman provides a theory of the self. According to Goffman, the self is composed of two parts the performer and the character. The theory being that the self is a performed character. The character being the real self, which is developed because of one’s actions. All the actions we make as individuals have risks, and these risks are part of our everyday performances.

There was nothing inevitable about Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist movements rise to power, or indeed the consolidation of that power into a Nazi dictatorship, with mass support for their extreme fascist ideology whose appeal transcended all classes. This essay will attempt to explain how in a very short period of time, due to a combination of factors that came together to create the right conditions, for an extreme fascist movement to emerge out of what was essentially then the most democratic state in the world and seize power, but moreover, how adroitly power became consolidated under a one party dictatorship of Hitler. Hitler used the internal machinery of the Weimar Republic to not only seize power, but also to consolidate it by passing a series of legislation that would legally transform the Democracy into a Fascist Dictatorship. In addition to constitutional methods, violence, intimidation and coercion also became a very effective tool to enforce Nazi ideology and objectives, particularly the centralisation of the state apparatus. Great use was made from mass propaganda in subsuming the German masses into the ideological grip of the Third Reich; part of Hitler’s success was his ability to find the necessary scapegoats such as the Jews (Larkin). But overall, the swift elimination of political rivals and threats was crucial to maintaining, as well as enhancing Nationalist Socialist power.

Hitler’s position as the stable consolidated head of the Nazi state contrasted the conflict between the government and military organizations. Due to the massive amount of fragmentation within the German administration, there was bound to be rivalries between departments, primarily within the dichotomous relationship between the civil service and the military. “Conflict became personalized and conducted through intrigue, and since Hitler avoided involvement when possible, they had to be settled through temporary truces and private treaties.” Those in a position to gain power occupied themselves by attempting to curry the Führer’s favour through the development of increasingly radicalized policies that were grounded in Hitler’s ideological manifesto. Association and approval from the Führer was like an exclusive club, and provided a means of advancement and professional success. Hitler’s authority condoned the implementation of these radical and often inhumane actions as long as they pursued the Nazi Weltanschauung. There was no institutional body

I will try to make my points clear so you can understand what I might

Few individuals have been able to change the ideals of others; Adolph Hitler was one such individual. His worldly impact began in the 1920’s and continues today. He is associated with both chaos and the complete destruction of many innocent lives. Hitler’s ideology developed when an economic collapse occurred in Germany. He offered ideas to the desperate people of Germany that they could not refuse. These ideas are responsible for the beginning of Western Racism, the singling out of a specific race as inferior. He also has been called the eliminator of the entire Jewish population. One must ask why the German people eagerly welcomed his radical ideas. World-renowned Hitler biographer

It is a well-known fact that during European colonial rule, Africans were exposed to a multitude of injustices including warfare, slavery, and the occupation of their lands by European invaders. In retrospect, the ashes of traditional African societies are what built thriving European-owned African mining, agricultural and rubber economies. But nothing that Africa had previously suffered was quite like the apartheid, which South Africa was exposed to from 1948-1994. The apartheid was a systematic of racial segregation in South Africa enforced by the all-white National Party with the goal to “separate South Africa’s white minority from its non-white majority, non-whites from each other, and to divide black South Africans to decrease their political power”. In essence, under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed, white minority dominance was maintained. This essay explores how the apartheid mirrored the core values of traditional colonial rule but was still fundamentally influential in its own way through its fight over land, institutionalized racism, and the consequences of when it was finally abolished.

In this essay I will outline and assess the dramaturgical approach of Ervin Goffman while considering how Goffman’s ideas could be applied to an everyday situation. Erving Goffman (1922–1982) was a micro-sociologist and he outlines his idea of the dramaturgical approach in his book called The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959). Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis of social interaction is where he describes face-to-face interactions on a daily basis. Goffman analyses social life and social interactions through a metaphor of the theatre, examining the ways in which people present themselves to each other in different situations, he argues, the world is much more like a stage.