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The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
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A notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves. This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they
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I’m probably going to say something a little daft about this book – but I do think two things: Goffman really didn’t need to be quite so squeamish about his central metaphor of ‘all the world’s a stage’ and he should have started with something he said in his conclusion and worked out from there. That is, that there are five ways you can come to understand an enterprise: technically (what’s it trying to achieve and how does it go about achieving it?), politically (who has power and how do they g
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explains in 250 pages why parties are terrible
five stars now, five stars forever
five stars now, five stars forever
My favorite part of this book is the cover. The presentation of the book in everyday life.
My second favorite part of this book is the author’s name, which is fun to say repeatedly in foreign accents.
My third favorite part of this book was the body of the work itself, which is, indeed, brilliant, and contains innumerable insightful gems for the social scientist or layman. The book is propelled along by an array of interesting examples taken from sociology, ethnography, literature, and philosophy. ...more
My second favorite part of this book is the author’s name, which is fun to say repeatedly in foreign accents.
My third favorite part of this book was the body of the work itself, which is, indeed, brilliant, and contains innumerable insightful gems for the social scientist or layman. The book is propelled along by an array of interesting examples taken from sociology, ethnography, literature, and philosophy. ...more
Accessible sociology that is fun to read: Goffman looks at the roles we play and the ensembles we play them with, the costumes, texts and behaviors we employ, the audiences we want to influence as well as the stages we step on. His main accomplishment is to give these phenomena structure and to provide entertaining and stringent examples. Good stuff and still highly relevant.
Disclaimer though: The book was first published in 1959, and there are some examples and words in there that are not cons ...more
Disclaimer though: The book was first published in 1959, and there are some examples and words in there that are not cons ...more
Aug 22, 2007
Cat
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
students of human behavior.
Shelves:
sociology,
socialinteractiontheory
I'm not a student of sociology or psychology, but I can't seem to stay away from the work of Erving Goffman. This is the third book by Goffman that I've read (others: Stigma, Asylums). In this book, Goffman elucidates a "dramaturgical" theory of self, which he claims is an additional method of explaining human action.
First caveat, I've not read any books by Talcott Parsons, or Manheim, and there were several sections in this book that were heavy enough in theory to make me give up. Despite thes ...more
First caveat, I've not read any books by Talcott Parsons, or Manheim, and there were several sections in this book that were heavy enough in theory to make me give up. Despite thes ...more
I always felt that the reason so few sociologists took up Goffman's ideas was that they (the sociologists)were not good enough. I certainly felt this myself for about twenty years, and even when I did begin to use his ideas, it was in fear and trembling. Goffman was a phenomenon. The Presentation of Self is particular book was a real tour de force, probably his best book, though the later ones are wonderful too. Its central theme is familiar enough from Shakespeare - "All the world's a stage" -
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Contrary to many of the reviews listed, I think Goffman's examination of social interaction as presentation is increasingly relevant in the consumer/citizen, capitalist culture we have created for ourselves in the Western, developed world. The performances we offer now are less representative and more detatched from a possible truth than the more romanticized presentations considered by Goffman.
Influenced, in part, by the work of Simone De Beauvoir, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life draw ...more
Influenced, in part, by the work of Simone De Beauvoir, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life draw ...more
Oct 18, 2013
Friedrich Mencken
rated it
did not like it
Shelves:
postmodernism-and-academic-politics
Structuralist extremism that rejects the very existence of self.
Identifies the equivalent of self as the total mass of masks worn in the different roles played throughout life i.e. the sum of social encounters one has had thus far. This also means the self is in a state of perpetual change depending on the “casting” of life or in other words the social situations creates the very essence of man and thus conceptualizes his being “through the eyes of the other”. It is impossible according to Goffm ...more
Identifies the equivalent of self as the total mass of masks worn in the different roles played throughout life i.e. the sum of social encounters one has had thus far. This also means the self is in a state of perpetual change depending on the “casting” of life or in other words the social situations creates the very essence of man and thus conceptualizes his being “through the eyes of the other”. It is impossible according to Goffm ...more
I like the idea of the metaphor of presenting self as acting a part upon a stage and Goffman's extension of this metaphor but it eventually breaks down and applies only well only to institutions. It's ideas are also very dated so I would recommend reading scholars who have built upon Goffman's work rather than Goffman. As an alternative to struggling through this thing, the wikipedia page on dramaturgy is pretty good and links to http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/NEWPRE/CULT9... which is an excellent sum
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I don't know how much this book is "right" or even how much i agree with it, but i read this for the first time a while back and it has given me tools and language that profoundly changed how i think and talk about sociality.
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I have met people who didn't seem to have a "backstage."
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Dated but interesting reflections
This is a truly stunning book. This is probably the tenth time I've read Goffman's Presentation of Self in my academic life. Every time I read it, a new lens appears.
Currently, I am researching leadership in our universities. I returned to Goffman. What I have missed through my previous readings is the role of 'the audience' in sustaining the performance. So 'the audience' for the performance (of leadership) must believe. When they doubt - the performance is over. When the backstage emerges - se ...more
Currently, I am researching leadership in our universities. I returned to Goffman. What I have missed through my previous readings is the role of 'the audience' in sustaining the performance. So 'the audience' for the performance (of leadership) must believe. When they doubt - the performance is over. When the backstage emerges - se ...more
Goffman analyzes impression management, as a fundamental dimension of social interaction, which connects to the nature of our subjectivity and of social institutions. Goffman argues that whenever two or more people come together, their expressions and responses are guided by a mutual understanding of the type of situation that is at hand. Giving an impression of the kind of person (e.g., her social class, professional or practical role, etc.) each is amounts to providing critical, public informa
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Queering the fake/authentic binary
Perhaps the reason TV and film depicting human drama is so appealing is because these depictions are in idealized form imitations of certain impression that people wish to convey in everyday life. Erving Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life explores the idea that even though dramatic TV and film might be cases of art imitating life, it might be helpful thinking of ourselves as actors on a social stage with respect to our jobs and public lives. To varying degrees, we are trying to mana
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This is a highly insightful book on the performative nature of social interactions. It also reveals the severe restrictions on acceptable middle class behavior in the 1950s. Accessible and engaging and you don't have to be a sociology nerd to enjoy it.
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I was assigned this in a drama class and although I dropped out of the class, hung onto the book as a "to-be-read". Finished it late in life and kicked myself for it. Offers invaluable insight on behaviour and perception.
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I think this book served as a huge reminder that people act in different ways depending on the audience. The audience could be friends, family members, classmates, teachers, or coworkers. Each audience changes, meaning that the performer has to change too.
my handbook when I finished my thesis.
this book is kind of manual of life.
this book is kind of manual of life.
I hated every second reading this
Jun 14, 2022
Goda
added it
Someone in previous reviews mentioned this book is fun to read sociology, and I really disagree with that. It is not easy to read and was quite not fun at moments, however I do feel that it changed some perceptions about my reality. While reading a book I started to question and recognize some things I and others do in my everyday life, that is totally a front and performance, even though I never saw it in that way. I don't think that ever was a motivation, but for me it brought some peacefulnes
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Despite being on my bedside table for nearly 9 months…..4 stars. Not even w my psychology degree have I read something so painfully detailed and meta about social interactions and how we present and conceal ourselves to the world.
Something I won’t be able to stop thinking about: “Shared staging problems; concern for the way things appear; warranted and unwarranted feelings of shame; ambivalence about oneself and one’s audience: these are some of the dramaturgic elements of the human situation.”
Something I won’t be able to stop thinking about: “Shared staging problems; concern for the way things appear; warranted and unwarranted feelings of shame; ambivalence about oneself and one’s audience: these are some of the dramaturgic elements of the human situation.”
Goffman’s profound influence on micro-sociology originates from this book in which he advances ideas from his doctoral dissertation. He is credited for the birth of “dramaturgical analysis” which observes human interactions in context of their time, place and audience. The focal theme of this reading section is the “dramaturgical act”: a social act that is designed to be seen by others, aimed at improving one’s image, gaining success if the audience believes that the character they see actually
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Also posted on Eva Lucias blog
Erving Goffman’s sociological theory is important to mention, when one talks about the impact of social media. The focus of theory is social interaction; how the individuals portray themselves, and ‘the part of social life that occurs whenever two or more individuals are in one another’s response presence’ (Stones, 2008). Furthermore, Goffman presents a close analysis of ‘what people do when they [are] in the company of others, and of how those doings are understood ...more
Erving Goffman’s sociological theory is important to mention, when one talks about the impact of social media. The focus of theory is social interaction; how the individuals portray themselves, and ‘the part of social life that occurs whenever two or more individuals are in one another’s response presence’ (Stones, 2008). Furthermore, Goffman presents a close analysis of ‘what people do when they [are] in the company of others, and of how those doings are understood ...more
Mar 09, 2021
Justin (Backstage Revisited)
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
my-physical-bookcase
Goffman analyzes (western) societies from a dramaturgical point of view. According to him, everyone plays a role in a social setting. This is the so called front region or frontstage, but in the backstage people let go of their role. I got the idea that Goffman saw every social interaction as a performance that doesn't completely fit the person, and that only people who've known each other very well for a long time (like old friends) have a small difference between their frontstage and backstage
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Not necessarily new information, but then the book is close to 69 years old and Goffman himself points out that the concept is well known. Occasionally racist, with repeated simplified views of Chinese and Indian life and a few iffy comments about other minority cultures.
My main interest in this book is that it seems to be a clear and interesting starting point to much of contemporary identity theory, with some of the most interesting commentary in the conclusion. Some of his commentary sounds l ...more
My main interest in this book is that it seems to be a clear and interesting starting point to much of contemporary identity theory, with some of the most interesting commentary in the conclusion. Some of his commentary sounds l ...more
Aug 19, 2014
Kevin Flynn
added it
I think this is a great book to explain the way that people carry themselves in the world. This book is the great grand daddy to Daniel Pink, Chuck Klosterman, Malcolm Gladwell and many other social-esque authors. This book explains wonderfully how perception is a mask we wear, a color we paint in, a lock box we hide our true selves in. People see only what we allow them to see. I wrote my Senior Seminar dissertation on this book. It was a great read....might be re reading it soon with the way F
...more
Great book on how people create images of who they are, and how interpersonal communication is inherently dramatic in form.
An excellent look at social interactions, bringing us the notion of dramaturgical analysis. All the world is a stage, as Shakespeare wrote.
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Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 – November 19, 1982) was a Canadian-born sociologist and writer.
Considered "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century" (Fine, Manning, and Smith 2000:ix), as a subjective analyst, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical analysis that began with his 1959 book The Presen ...more
Considered "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century" (Fine, Manning, and Smith 2000:ix), as a subjective analyst, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical analysis that began with his 1959 book The Presen ...more
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“And to the degree that the individual maintains a show before others that he himself does not believe, he can come to experience a special kind of alienation from self and a special kind of wariness of others.”
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“The self, then, as a performed character, is not an organic thing that has a specific location, whose fundamental fate is to be born, to mature, and to die; it is a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a scene that is presented, and the characteristic issue, the crucial concern, is whether it will be credited or discredited.”
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