Erving Goffman: Dramaturgy, Symbolic Interactionism, and presentation of self.
Erving Goffman: Dramaturgy, Symbolic Interactionism, and presentation of self
Erving Goffman is generally associated with the ideas and concepts of symbolic interactionism and was strongly influenced by the work of George Herbert Mead. Goffman was interested in exploring human interactions and how people presented themselves in everyday settings, especially in public places. This led to one of Goffman’s key works in sociology, ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’ (1956). This major work has characterised Goffman as the founding father of ‘dramaturgy’.
Dramaturgy is the analysis of human behaviour that suggests life is a ‘play’ and people are the ‘actors’. The difference with dramaturgy is that instead of the interactions being rehearsed beforehand for an audience, real life human interactions are improvised and are expressions of ones individuality which can change depending upon the social situation they are in. According to Goffman, the world is a stage in which we are all social actors. We play multiple roles doing set things based on expectations of each other. In certain situations we all have ideas of how to act based upon what the other person expects so they are able to interpret our actions and apply meanings to them. For example, in a classroom the teacher will adopt a professional manner in front of students and supply them with information using symbols and language he/she expects the students will understand. The students will normally adopt an attentative manner and use symbols to let the teacher know they want to ask a question such as putting up their hand and wait to be acknowledged.