Universitatea din Bucureti Facultatea de Sociologie i Asisten Social Departamentul de Sociologie

Eseu despre lucrarea lui Erving Goffman, Viaa cotidian ca spectacol

-eseu semestrial -

Pripasu Mihaela-Liliana Anul I, Seria II, Grupa III.

Profesor coordonator: Claudia Ghioiu.

2014

Erving Goffman (June 11 ,1922 November 19, 1982) is a well-known Canadian-born sociologist, considered to be the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth . TheTimes Higher Education Guide listed Goffman as the 6th most-cited author in the social science. He was born in Mannville,Alberta, Canada though he was from a family of Ukrainian Jews whomoved to Canada. First he studied chemistry at the University of Manitoba but he interrupted his studies and started working for the National Film Board of Canada. During this time he met Dennis Wrong a famous North American sociologist at that time and he became interested in sociology. This meeting with Dennis Wrong was a motivation for Goffman to abandon University of Manitoba and enroll at the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in sociology and anthropology. After that he studied at the University of Chicago and after finishing his studies he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology. Then, while he was preparing for his dissertation, he lived in the Shetland Islands to collect ethnographic data. ( Wikipedia.org) That research inspired Goffman to write his first truly important work , The Presentation Of Self in Everyday Life in 1956. Goffman is most probably best known for this book which is a study of symbolic interaction under the form of dramaturgical analysis. In the book , Goffman`s starting idea is that in the everyday socialization , everybody acts and reacts not naturally, but under a mask made of individual points of view ,personal opinions about other people, situations and most important about themselves. Erving Goffman seeks to show the reader how everyone sets out to present themselves to the world around them, always trying to maintain the role they have selected for themselves, since those whom they meet not only try to decide what role it is you are playing, but also whether or not you are competent to play that role. Goffman seems to take all elements of acting into consideration: an actor performs on a setting which is constructed of a stage and a backstage, the props in both settings direct in his acts, he is being watched by an audience, but at the same time he is an audience for his viewers' play. He thinks that When an actor takes on an established social role, usually he finds that a particular front has already been established for it. The author portrays everyday interactions as strategic encounters in which one is attempting to "sell" a particular self-image--and, accordingly, a particular definition of the situation. He refers to these activities as "face-work." Beginning by taking the perspective of one of the interactants, and he interprets the impact of that person's performances on the others and on

the situation itself. He considers being in wrong face, out of face, and losing face through lack of tact, as well as savoir-faire (diplomacy or social skill), the ways a person can attempt to save face in order to maintain self-respect, and various ways in which the person may harm the "face" of others through faux pas such as gaffes or insults (243). These conditions occur because of the existence of self presentational rules. These rules, in turn, are determined by how situations are defined. The true or real attitudes, beliefs, and emotions of the individual can be ascertained only indirectly, through his avowals or through what appears to be involuntarily expressive behavior. Interaction is viewed as a performance constructed to provide others with impressions that are consonant with the desired goals of the actor. In this way, the individual develops the self through interaction with others, through an exchange of information that allows specific definitions of identity and behavior . The chapter named The arts of impression management is like a summary of earlier chapters, bringing together the threads. Here, Goffman presents the principal performance disruptions, as he names them. One of these disruptions are considered to be unmeant gestures, which can many times spoil really important moments from different ceremonies, festivities or even parties. A relevant example taken from Ponsonbys Recollections of Three Reign is given here: One of the Attaches from the Legation was to carry the cushion on which the insignia were placed, and in order to prevent their falling off stuck the pin at the back of the Star through the velvet cushion. The Attache, however, was not content with this, but secured the end of the pin by the catch to make double sure. The result was that when Prince Alexander, having made a suitable speech, tried to get hold of the Star, he found it firmly fixed to the cushion and spent some time in getting it loose. This rather spoilt the most impressive moment of the ceremony. Obviously, both the person who contributed to an

unmeant gesture and the one performing it, are equally responsible for the happening. In the same time, the one causing the gesture discredits himself also, maybe even more than the others because the audience, also a term introduced by Goffman, will have the tendency to blame him for spoiling the event and others reputation. So, it seems essential that when working in a team, to take good care that your team-mates performance is at a high level, in order to cause positive impression about the entire team in witch yourself are. This looks even more important when considering the fact that usually, critics or appreciations are directed towards the entire team performing the action, not towards a particular individual. Eloquent in this context are the sayings of the author himself: the individual held responsible for contributing an unmeant gesture may chiefly discredit his own performance by this (referring

to Ponsonbys example), a team-mates performance, or the performance being staged by his audience. The past life and current round of activity of a given performer typically contain at least a few facts which, if introduced during the performance, would discredit or at least weaken the claims about self that the performer was attempting to project as part of the definition of the situation. Well-kept dark secrets or negatively-valued characteristics that everyone can see but no one refers to, could be behind these facts which can cause nothing but embarrassment, as usual. These facts can be brought to ones attention by unmeant gestures or inopportune intrusions, but more frequently they are introduced by intentional verbal statements or nonverbal acts whose full significance is not appreciated by the person who contributes them to the interaction. Commonly, these disruptions are called faux pas. These particular disruptions are divided into some categories. Where a performer unthinkingly makes an intentional contribution which destroys his own teams image we speak of gaffes or boners. Where a performer jeopardizes the image of self projected by the other team, we may speak of bricks or of the performer having put his foot in it . These faux pas could be caused by the performers lack of attention and ignorance concerning the performance. These disruptions could be avoided with the help of self-discipline and concentration, a small price considering the damages such mistakes could cause to the individual or to the team. Unmeant gestures, inopportune intrusions, and faux pas are important sources of dissonance and embarrassment, their particularity consisting in the fact that they are unintended and that they could have been avoided if the individuals would have known in advance the results of their activity. However, there are situations, often called scenes, in which an individual acts in such a way as to destroy or serious threaten the polite appearance of consensus, and while he may not act simply in order to create such dissonance, he acts with the knowledge that this kind of dissonance is likely to result. The common-sense phrase, creating a scene, is apt because, in effect, a new scene is created by such disruptions. This creation of a new scene causes the dividing of the team into two new teams. This fact is due to the new drama which forcibly takes place to the previous interplay between the teams. Scenes can occure when the audience no longer wants to react to the performance in polite terms, reacting expressively or even violently. This kind of behavior is considered, then, by the other team, unacceptable. This happens when an individual screws up his social courage.

Scenes can also occur when two people interact in such a loud way that the others who are taking part in other scenes are forced to witness that interaction, being obliged to give-up to their own. The final kind of scene has in its primary role a person who acts like a one-man team. In that situation, that person is most assumable to choose his claim or request in such a way that it will not be refused by the audience. However he could also intent a claim that the audience will surely reject, that is if his motivation is strong enough. In that situation he will become totally dependent of the audience. He will try, then, to put himself in the position of a member of the audience, or, on the contrary, to make the audience enter his team. Anyway, this kind of actions are really embarrassing, considering the fact that in case of a refusal, the individual can suffer humiliation. All the incidents described above may seem to be hard to manage, but this is not necessarily true. It depends on the performer himself, as well as on those who participate in the interaction and who do not, that they possess and express certain attributes in practice in order to save the situation and to cancel its unfavorable results. This implies a constant interaction between the performer, the audience and even the outsiders. It is therefore a situation that depends on numerous sides, the most important thing consisting in the will of these parts to interact in such a way that, in the end, the show turns out to be a success. I will now go on with describing the Defensive attributes and practices. The first concept concerning these is the dramaturgical loyalty. Goffman thinks that it is only apparent that the team members must act as if they have accepted certain moral obligations. The real motivation which keeps them from betraying the secrets of the team is not to fall victim to their self-interest or their lack of discretion. It is given here an example with a child who is isolated from the discussions of his parents until they become sure of the fact that he will not divulge their sayings to another member of the family, that is, whose part will he take. In Goffmans opinion, the key problem in maintaining the loyalty of team-members is not to allow performers to develop emotional ties with the audience, because this will eventually be a disadvantage for the whole team. In order to avoid these unfortunate events, the author suggests that team-members should be more inhuman regarding their feelings. It is also vital for the maintenance of the teams performance that each member of the team possesses dramaturgical discipline and exercise it in presenting his own part. A performer who is

disciplined, dramaturgically speaking, is someone who remembers his part and does not commit unmeant gestures or faux pas in performing it. Schlenker defined impression management as, the conscious or unconscious attempt to control images that are projected in real or imaginary social interactions. When these images deal with some aspect of self, we call it self-presentation. The theory called Symbolic Interactionism, by C.H.Cooley and

G.H.Mead, stressed that participants in social interactions try to take the role of the other and see themselves as others see them. Symbolic interactionism is a social psychological theory developed from the work of Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead in the early part of the twentieth century (the actual name of the theory comes from Herbert Blumer, one of Mead's students). According to this theory, people inhabit a world that is in large part socially constructed. In particular, the meaning of objects, events, and behaviors comes from the interpretation people give them, and interpretations vary from one group to another. Cooley, in his theory of a "looking glass self," argued that the way we think about ourselves is particularly apt to be a reflection of other people's appraisals (or more accurately, our imagining of other people's appraisals) and that our self-concepts are built up in the intimate groups that he called "primary groups." Mead emphasized that human beings do not react directly to events; they act based on their interpretation of the meaning of events. In Social Sciences in the chapter symbolic interaction is mentioned Goffmans book: The most sophisticated small-group research was devised by Erving Goffman in his book The presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Goffman insisted that the most meaningful individual behaviour occurs in the chance, intimate encounters of each day. All these encounters include geeting people, appearing in public , and reacting to the physical appearance of others. Erving Goffman portrais everyday interactions as strategic encounters. These encounters include geeting people , appearing in public, and reacting to the physical appearance of others. Such encounters have structures of their own that can be researched by carefully constructing the frames people use to interpret and stage interactions. ( Social Sciences, page 334). In my opinion, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is an excelent work, done by an excelent sociologyst. It`s very interesting to study people and see how they interract, how they use different faces, how they act on the scene of life. The Arts of Impression Management from the book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life represents an essential work among

all the other written on that particular theme, considering its original concept on life, regarded as a show in which people are the actors. In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , Goffman mentioned how individuals play a role. Play a role refers the changing of ones behaviour to assume a role. In the life , the individuals change a lot of roles. So Goffman`s ideas force us to consciously consider why people behave the way they do, or even ourselves act different in different situations. In conclusion, he says that people wear their masks because they know that others will judge, classify and make an opinion based on his actions and opinions about certain topics.