Dramaturgy

The individual … itself does not derive from its possessor, but from the whole scene of his action, being generated by that attribute of local events which renders them interpretable by witnesses. A correctly staged and preformed scene leads the audience to impute a [body] to a preformed character, but this imputation – this [body] – is a product of a scene that comes off, and is not a cause of it. The [body], 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 (Goffman, 1959)

Goffman went to a small island and he observed the native people on a daily basis, he told them that he was studying farming, so they talked to him about farming, because they were farmers. But he was really interested in studying how the present themselves. He generated this idea the people were like actors, they saw the self as performance and he looks at it as a drama, as stage acting.

Goffman looks at the relationship between the performer and the audience, and used it to understand social interaction.

Goffman points out that many individuals use scripts.

e.g. when you talk to old friend there are a certain set of ideas/questions that you ask them (have you talked to ... lately? how’s your daughter? Etc). Certain themes and ideas that are reoccurring and they are sort of scripting how we talk to each other and what we talk about.

Goffman suggests that, like actors the individual has props all around them. He/she use these things like an actor putting on a play, and has all of these things around to shape how he/she is presented to others.

e.g. Do we pick up the chair and throw it, do we sit on it, do we answer the phone, the clothes we wear.

Goffman suggest that actors have a stage/setting, and that he/she can create that setting.

Front stage – the actor formally performs and adheres to conventions that have meaning to the audience. The actor knows he or she is being watched and acts accordingly. This is a fixed presentation.

Back stage – the actor is able to step “out of character” without disrupting the performance, as no one is watching. The audience cannot appear in the backstage.

Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.