ERVING GOFFMAN (1922-1982)

DRAMATURGY

MICRO LEVEL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY


       

Macro Sociology

Micro Sociology

Study social structures

Study day to day interactions of individuals

Durkheim, Parsons (Functionalists), Karl Marx (Marxist), Auguste Comte (Positivist)  

G.H. Mead, H. Blumer (Symbolic interactionist), Erving Goffman (Dramaturgy),  Alfred Schutz (Phenomenology), H. Garfinkel (Ethnomethodology), Max Weber (Interpretivist) etc  

Social structure not only shapes but determine human behaviour.

Action produces social structures

Individual are passive, ready to accept the constraints and demands of social structure

Individual are autonomous, purposive, with free will and subjective because they are driven by different sets of meaning

Neglect individual completely

Emphasis on micro level recognition of individual

Generalise unversal theories

Focus on partcularisation

                                                                  

  •  A Canadian-American Sociologist and writer
  • Born : 11 June 1922 Mannville, Canada
  •  Died: 19 November 1982 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
  •  Goffman was influenced by Herbert Blumer, Emile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Schutz, Talcott Parsons, W.L. Warner and Evrett Hughes
  • Theory of Dramaturgy introduced in his book THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE.
  • Dramaturgy fits in the symbolic interactionist perspective (Micro level)
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

Social order starts from individuals and meanings they give to objects, events and relationships with others.
Social order maintainted by shared understanding of everday behaviour.


DRAMATURGY IN GOFFMAN’S SENSE

ü  Concern with cultural script/normative rules

ü  Emphasis on how individuals manage their impression and play roles

ü  Concern with stages and props (physical space and object)

ü  Emphasis on staging

ü  Manipulation of gestures as well as spacing, props and other physical aspect of a selling

ü  view of self as situational determined by the cultural script, stage and audience

ü  how performance create a theatrical ambiance

THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERY DAY LIFE (1959)

Human actions are dependent upon : 

TIME                                                                                                                                                             SPACE &

AUDIENCE

How presents oneself to another based on :  CULTURAL VALUES

                                                                        NORMS

                                                                        EXPECTATIONS

      •         Goal of this presentation is acceptance from the audience through manipulation

•         Examines the context not the cause of human behaviour  

•         Emphasizes expressiveness as the main component of interaction

•         A persons identity is not stable

 •         Social interaction as part of a theatrical performance

CENTRAL THEME

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT : The technique that social actors use to maintain particular images of themselves when they encounter problem during interaction. (As on stage people in every day life manage settings, clothings etc to get empression to others.

FRONT STAGE

•         Action visible to the audience as part of performance

BEFORE A FRONT STAGE

•     Performance an individual prepares a role impression that he/she wants to make on others. These roles re called breaking characters. 

BACK STAGE

•         Behaviour where no audience is visible 

Before an interaction with another an individual prepares a role or impression that he or she wants to make on others. These roles are called breaking characters.

There are seven important elements Goffman identifies with respect to the performance

BELIEF: What the performer want to convey is believes upon objectivity (without any understanding of subjectivity)

MASK : To control his inwards disturbances; standardise generalizable and transferable way for the performer in which the audience perceive him or her.

DRAMATIC REALIZATION: Aspects that the performer wants the audience to know. The more situation creates in presenting a front, Goffman argued the greater will be effort at dramatic realization.

IDEALIZATION: Audiences often have an idea of how the situation should look and the actor will try to carry out the performance according to that idea.

IN CHARACTER: To stay in character (maintaining expressive control)

MISREPRESENTATION: Danger of conveying wrong meaning. The eagerness of one’s audience to read gestures and determine one’s front makes the audience vulnerable to manipulation and duping.

MYSTIFICATION: Refers to the concealment of certain information from the audience :

A)     to increase their interest in user

B)    avoid those information which could affect the performer

TEAM: Members must cooperate and share party line. Team members must share information. Any mistake reflect on every one.

STAGES: Three distinct area or region: 

How we behave and interact when we have audience

  • Routinized
  • Highly intentional and purposeful
  • learned      social scripts shaped by cultural norms
  • awareness about how others perceive us and what they expect of us
  • it shapes not just what we do and say but how we dress and style ourselves, how we behave (assertive, pleasant, hostile etc)

BACK STAGE

  • What we do when no one is looking
  • Free from the expectation
  • Carry true selves
  • Often when we are at back stage  we rehearse certain behaviours or interactions and prepare ourselves for front
  • Example: the kitchen within a restaurant

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT:  Expressing certain information in order to impress certain ideas upon an audience during social interaction

•        Front stage                        Barriers         Back stage

•         PROPS                                                                         INFORMAL TALKS

•         SIGNS                                                                           RELAXED ROLES                                                                                                            

•         GIVE OFF

•         DRAMATIC INTERACTION

OUTSIDE :    Off stage

                        Individuals not involved in performance (although they may not aware )

Where individual actors meet the audience members independently of the team performance on the front

BORDERS: Boundaries – Control who has access to the performance, when and how.

SECRETS: Many performances need to prevent the audience from getting some information

DARK:  Conceal facts which are incompatible with the image of self

STRATEGIC: Intention and capacities of the team which allows the team to control audience and lead it in the direction of team desires

INSIDE: Something is shared only with other team members of the group to increase bonding.










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Anonymous said…
Very good content
September 10, 2023 at 2:21 AM
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