“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” William Shakespeare may have written these words in As You Like It in 1600, but Erving Goffman truly defined the phrase with his dramaturgical theory. Dramaturgical analysis is the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance. Unlike actors though, who use a script telling them how to behave in every scene, real life human interactions change depending upon the social situation they are in. We may have an idea of how we want to be perceived, and may have the foundation to make that happen. But we cannot be sure of every interaction we will have throughout the day, having to ebb and flow with the conversations and situations as they happen. Adopted into sociology by Erving Goffman, he developed most terms and the idea behind dramaturgical analysis in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. This book lays out the process of human social interaction, sometimes called "impression management". Goffman makes the distinction between "front stage" and "back stage" behavior. “Front stage" actions are visible to the audience and are part of the performance. We change our hair color, eye color, complextion. Wearing make-up, the way our hair is styled, the clothes we wear. The demeanor we present to the world to the. All of these things lead to an outward appearance of what we want others to think we are. People engage in "back stage" behaviors when no audience is present. We whine and moan about the customers we deal with. Hair goes un-styled, make is wiped off. Clothing is comfortable and unrestricting. When a person conducts themselves in certain way not consistent with social expectations, it is often done secretly if this ... ... middle of paper ... ...rrante-1st/chapter-4/module-4-7 (2012, 12). Outline and Discuss Erving Goffman's Theory of Dramaturgy.. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 12, 2012, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Outline-And-Discuss-Erving-Goffman%27s-Theory-1280254.html Psathas, George, Theoretical Perspectives on Goffman: Critique and Commentary, Sociological Perspectives, Fall 1996 pp. 383 Goffman, Erving, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Doubleday and Anchor Books, New York, 1959, pp. 34- 44 Boje, D. M. , Luhman, J. T. , and Cunliffe, A. L. “ A Dialectic Perspective on the Organization Theatre Metaphor. ” American Communication Journal, 2003, p. 4 Meyer , J. W. , and Rowan , B. “ Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. ” In J. W. Meyer and W. R. Scott (eds.), Organizational Environments: Ritual and Rationality. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1983a. p. 126
Dramaturgy refers to how art brings out the dramatic actions and representation by creating a series of engaging elements on the stage. Dramaturgy is more of how actionable the piece of work is to the presenters and audience. It is somehow distinct from playwriting and directing since one piece of art can contain variant concepts of dramaturgy. It gives the narrative about the relationship with cultural signs, gender roles, historical sources and origin if not specific references. The Shakespeare's work titled Winter’s Tale exposes credible illustrations of dramaturgy bringing particular insight into the history to the surface. Technically, the in-depth investigation revealed that the union between King Henry VII and Anne Boleyn creates challenging reflections on the ruling of the Mighty Kingdom. In fact, it brands the novel with the scenic introduction and ending as well.
It is difficult to imagine a play which is completely successful in portraying drama as Bertolt Brecht envisioned it to be. For many years before and since Brecht proposed his theory of “Epic Theatre”, writers, directors and actors have been focused on the vitality of entertaining the audience, and creating characters with which the spectator can empathize. ‘Epic Theatre’ believes that the actor-spectator relationship should be one of distinct separation, and that the spectator should learn from the actor rather than relate to him. Two contemporary plays that have been written in the last thirty years which examine and work with Brechtian ideals are ‘Fanshen’ by David Hare, and ‘The Laramie Project’ by Moises Kaufman. The question to be examined is whether either of these two plays are entirely successful in achieving what was later called, ‘The Alienation Effect”.
Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books.
Erving Goffman, a sociologist with a symbolic interactionist view on society, had a unique view on how people try to change how the world views them. Goffman believed that people try and manipulate how people view them. People want to be portrayed a certain way, so they altar aspects of themselves to fit how
This paper focuses on dramaturgy and how it plays a part in our everyday life. On this particular day I participated in both back stage and front stage behaviors and played different roles. I kept a log of my activities for the day and social interactions I encountered throughout my day. It was interesting to note that some casual interactions we don’t even think about, we just instinctively use old familiar scripts. The example used in Goffman’s Dramaturgical Sociology, was a casual acquaintance asking how are you and the person replying fine and yourself? “This is a fragment of conversation we are so used to employing that it feels automatic” (Kivisto, Pittman, 2007).
In his work, Goffman explains that ‘the self’ is the result of the dramatic interaction between the actor and the audience he or she performs to. There are many aspects of how an individual performs his or her ‘self’. One of the aspects of performing the self that Goffman labels as the ‘front.’ The front involves managing the individual’s impression.
Social interaction is an integral part of the human experience. “It can be defined as the process by which people act and react in relation to others”. (Macionis) The home is where social interaction begins. “Whatever patterns are introduced will be continuously modified through the exceedingly variegated and subtle interchange of subjective meanings that goes on.” (Berger and Luckmann). Erving Goffman proposed the theory of Dramaturgical analysis which presents the view of social interaction as a theatrical performance.
According to Erving Goffman’s performances theory, the way we interpret ourselves is similar to a theater in which we are all actors on a stage playing a variety of roles. The way in which we act in front of a group of observers or audience is our performance. Goffman introduces the idea that we are always performing for our observers like actors performing on a stage. The impression that we give off to an audience in a scenario is the actor’s front. You can compare an actor’s front to a script. Certain scenarios have scripts that suggest the actor how he or she should behave in every situation. The setting for the performances includes the location and scenery in which the acing takes place.
Goffman argues that our sense of identity (who we believe ourselves to be) is also constructed socially through how we present ourselves to others.
.Gibson, J., Ivancevich, J., Donnelly, Jr., J., Konopaske, R. (2012). Organizations: Behavior, structure, processes (14th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 978-0078112669.
The book surveys a host of social exchanges whereby the author demonstrates that we in our everyday lives participate in performances of ourselves in ways similar to actors depicting characters. Essentially to Dr. Goffman, it is acting -the presentation of oneself - whether recognized as such by individuals involved or not He begins quoting George Santayana in an exploration of mask. In chapter one, entitled “Performances,” the theatrical lens starts the analysis. He relays sociologist, Robert Ezra Park’s concept, “We come into the world as individuals, achieve character, and become persons” (p.20). These examples and all other pertinent information supporting his thesis are registered through theater. Previewing t...
Select a social position other than a teacher or doctor and provide a detailed paragraph applying Goffman's dramaturgy. Identify the following terms for this position: costume, props, script, front stage, backstage, audience.
In the first chapter Esslin deems all common definitions of drama as lacking and insufficient since they overlook dramatic genres that are not staged. He thus draws heavily on those who regard live theatre as the only true form of drama. And yet Esslin does not state his own definition. He instead declares that drama should not have ...
Goffman, E. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Double Day
Clark 1997; Simon 1962) by including the notion that the relational structure of an organization can