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Goffman's theory of dramaturgy
From Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgical Analysis we learn that
Goffman's theory of dramaturgy
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Using the imagery of the theater to portray the social actions and interactions of human beings was the idea of Ervine Goffman. He thought that social situations were like theater, people of society were like actors on a stage, and that each person plays a variety of roles. The audience refers to the people that are in our surroundings that observe our actions on a daily basis. He said that like in theater performance there is a front region of the stage and a back region. The main concepts in Goffman’s theory, in which he refers to as the dramaturgical model of social life, are performance, setting, appearance, manner, front, front stage, back stage, and off stage. The term performance refers to the way a person acts in front observers or …show more content…
people in a public setting. This is where the individual delivers an impression to others and gives information to illustration their identity. The setting would be the places in which the interactions take place and the scenery. Appearance is used to show the social status of the performer. Dress is also helpful in determining the performer’s gender, status, occupations, and age.
Manner refers to how the performer will act out the roles. It can show whether they are aggressive, passive, dominant, shy, happy, or sad. The audience can become confused if there is a contradiction between appearance and manner. This can occur if the actor does not act how society expects them to act for their social status, which can be determined by appearance. For example, one would expect a police office in uniform to uphold the law, but he is seen stealing or breaking the law in some way. The actor’s front is the part of the performance, which define the situation for observers. This is the first impression that one gives off to others. There are certain situations that are expected to be treated or handled in a certain way or stereotype. Individuals will often find that there is a predetermined way to act in certain new situation. The three stages that Goffman lists refer to the different ways an individual acts depending on their audience. The front stage is when an individual knows they are being watched and wants to make a good first impression. This is when someone acts more formal and displays actions that are more
conventional. The back stage is when a person is not in front of others and can truly be their self. Individuals are not worried about impressing others or what one might think of them. Off stage is where the actor would meet audience members one on one. This would be where a person would get to know someone better after the first initial meeting. A person would act a little more like the real them but still not as much as one would act in the privacy of their own home. What Goffman is trying to relate to us is that we are all constantly in different settings and we have to adjust to our surroundings and paly different roles for different situations we might find ourselves in. Sometimes we alter the real person we are according to our surroundings or situation in society in order to adapt or impress others. At the end of the day, “when we are off stage”, we are our real selves when we are in the comfort of our home, family, and friends.
Dramaturgy is a view of social life as a series of dramatic performances akin to those taken place in a theatre (Ritzer, 144). Much of Goffman’s dramaturgy is concerned with the processes by which such disturbances are prevented and dealt with (Ritzer, page 144). In the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman developed a new approach to the sociological study of human interaction, due to a mental health court scenario, of what he referred to as “dramaturgical” because of the analogy it had of the theatre to describe how an individual engages in social interaction with others in a performance (Staton et al, page 5). This performance was a way for actors to influence their audience in a given situation. In the addition of the mental health scenario, age, gender, and race relevant. The human relationships observed in the mental health court was analyzed was theorized so Goffman could explain characteristics of human interactions.
It follows a routinized and learned social script shaped by cultural norms. Waiting in line for something, boarding a bus and flashing a transit pass, and exchanging pleasantries about the weekend with colleagues are all examples of routinized and scripted front stage performances. The routines of our daily lives that take place outside of our homes like traveling to and from work, shopping, dining out or going to a cultural exhibit. The performances we put together with those around us follow familiar rules and expectations for what we do, what we talk about, and how we interact with each other in each setting” (n.d.) while the back region is “what we do when no one is looking. Being at home instead of out in public, or at work or school, is the clearest demarcation of the difference between front and backstage in social life. We are often more relaxed and comfortable when backstage, we let our guard down, and be what our uninhibited or true selves. Often when we are backstage we rehearse certain behaviors or interactions and otherwise prepare ourselves for upcoming front stage
Appearance matters. What people express towards others, ultimately, results in a variety of reactions. In the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, every major character shows the audience their real personalities through Polonius’s words, “This above all: to thine own self be true” (1.3.79). If someone becomes true to himself, he will be true to others. However, these characters have facades where they put on a different personality to hide their true feelings, as well as to deceive others. In the end, these false personalities lead to their demise.
Berger and Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality and Irving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life analyze human interaction in the context of actions we perform and the meanings that such actions take in social environments. I will analyze Goffman’s account of modification of the “self” through performance within the context of Berger and Luckmann’s hypothesis. The theatrical performance metaphor looks at how socialization and experience affect the use of fronts, expressions, and expressions given off.
Performing- The performing stage is where everyone is clearly aware on what they’re doing and the purpose of what they’re doing. Everyone is able to share their ideas with others. Confidence is showed among the team members as their able to communicate to other team members without help or assistance from the leader. They can take charge of their own ideas. The team focus on achieving their goals .Although the team can disagreement with...
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 ...
One of the aspects from performing the self what Goffman labels as the ‘front.’ The front involves managing the individual’s impression. Similar to the definition of the word, the front is a part of an individual that is presented in order for others to see and is seen first. In our lives, the front stage occurs when we interact with others within public or professional settings.
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.
Erving Goffman uses a dramaturgical perspective in his discussion of impression management. Goffman’s analysis of the social world primarily centres around studies of the self and relationship to one’s identity created within a society. Through dramaturgy, Goffman uses the metaphor of performance theatre to convey the nature of human social interaction, drawing from the renowned quote “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It.’ Much of our exploration of Goffman’s theories lies within the premise that individuals engage in impression management, and achieve a successful or unsuccessful performance. Impression management refers to the ways in which individuals attempt to control the impression that others have of them stemming from a basic human desire to be viewed by others in a favourable light. Goffman argues that our impressions are managed through a dramaturgical process whereby social life is played out like actors performing on a stage and our actions are dictated by the roles that we are playing in particular situations. In a social situation, the stage is where the encounter takes place, the actors are the people involved in the interaction, and the script is the set of social norms in which the actors must abide by. Just as plays have a front stage and back stage, this also applies in day-to-day interactions. Goffman’s theory of the front and back stage builds on Mead’s argument of the phases of the self. The front stage consists of all the public and social encounters with other people. It is similar to the ‘me’ which Mead talks about, as it involves public encounters as well as how others perceive you. Meanwhile the back stage, like the ‘I’, is the time spent with oneself reflecting on the interactions. Therefore, according to Goffman’s dramaturgical
instance in our scene we had to enter a lift but to show this in a
have to act well so as to show audience with out seeming as if they
Erving Goffman is widely regarded as the father of dramaturgy in the sociological context, meaning his application of the theatrical aspect to informal sociological analysis was revolutionary to the field. The definition of dramaturgy in the sociological sphere can be simplistically defined as individuals playing a role in social situations to adhere to the societally determined role. To expand on this, Goffman places emphases less on how these roles or rituals have come to be performed and received in such ways but more towards the maintenance of social order via a subconscious removal of self to commit to the established role. A precursor to the role of dramaturgy is face; a concept which is recognised by Goffman in his piece On Face-Work
Theatre will always survive in our changing society. It provides us with a mirror of the society within which we live, and where conflicts we experience are acted out on stage before us. It provides us with characters with which we identify with. The audience observes the emotions and actions as they happen and share the experience with the characters in real time.
Erving Goffman (1959) wrote that “social interaction may be likened to a theatre, and people in everyday life to actors on stage, each playing a variety of roles”. When you think of the way we behave and interact with each other, there really is not a more appropriate metaphor than comparing our behavior to that of actors portraying roles on stage. For example, there are a multitude of roles and statuses that could be used to describe me; among them being Mexican American, student, wife, daughter, sister, female, and middle child. However, while all these are true at any given time throughout the day, the role I portray changes with the situation and it should since different settings or situations have different audiences thus requiring a distinct performance to accommodate the current situation. An example of this phenomenon is described by the differentiation between front stage performance and back stage performance. To use myself as an example again let us consider my front stage performance as a