University of Bucharest Department of Sociology and Social Work Sociology Specialization

Erving Goffman
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Coordinatior teacher : Ghioiu Claudia

Student: Stoica Alexandra Adelina

Bucharest 2014

The profound description and the in-depthed analysis in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is centering in a very original way some of the main orientations of contemporary sociology - ethnomethodology, sociological phenomenology, structuralism, symbolic interactionism and opens teeming perspectives in the science of communication (Septimiu Chelcea) Concerned about the dynamics of communicative processes, Erving Goffman approaches in the book " The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life the problematic of social theatre the opening the social interactions they establish in permanent everyday life. For Goffman every individual is both "actor1" and "character", but also a "mask" on the scene assumed on the stage of social interactions. Social actor presents itself and is concerned about generating certain impressions through specific expression. This approach is also a way of knowing the importance of interaction ,of communication and social scene for understanding how individuals relate to others and even to the community group. The flow of interaction reveals a show involving actor, audience, setting, observers and other co-participants situated at the side of stage or backstage. Any interaction occurs in a certain situation, and the performer convey structured information through natural language, but also through body language signs.The stake of Goffmans theatral perspective is not the expression given, verbally constructed , but the expression "flaunted" ,nonverbal, contextual, less controllable. To this perspective also corresponds the delimitation of the performance and the display of impression desired by the social actor . Goffman puts the performing of the actor on the stage of human relations both in the exposed regions and also in the regions hiddenfrom public.The professor professes during the intraction with the kids,and even between the seats in an exposed region , professing changing accordingly to the situation , both moral and also instrumental(the moral conditions are concerneing not agressing the others, the instrumental ones relate the concern of property and mentaining the level of training , so on ) A common form of adequacy in social institutions is what is called "pretend you are working" even if the teacher has nothing to do ,he adopts a preoccupied attitude when the students are in the break or when they are evaluated by writing , when the teachers activity is to supervise the students. Other important aspect of adequacy, moral and instrumental is the way of clothing (neither the teacher nor the students can not adopt a fashion style too eccentric or too loose), the number of allowable decibels (a teacher who always scream maintain tense in class and students show little interest in the subject of study, a student who screamed in the classroom is regarded as an offensive element to the teacher's authority), entertainment prohibited (both teacher and students can not smoke in school space), the expressions of afectivity condition (students may not manifest in the same way as out of school both between themselves and to the teacher). Since there is a region " exposed " there must be a region " hidden ", where the suppressed facts appear. " Backstage " is where the cultivated expression is knowingly
1

The word is used in his metaphorical meaning.

contradicted - Chancery , for example, is where the teacher can afford to adopt different attitudes of the performance .This is where the personal face is hidden, " ceremonial equipment ",the costumes are adjusted here , and this is where the performer is relaxing,getting out of the role. As part of impression management is another remarkable moment when the performer comes out and enters the hidden public region , moment wich best captures the "dressing" and "undressing"of the character. There is a third region, a "residual" region that shows different characteristics from the other two presented - "outside" - no exposed but also not hidden (school hall). Performer must ensure control of the region exposed, otherwise it will be put in the situation of not knowing what character must interpret. Performer strength lies in not being exposed.Taking a performance as a benchmark,Goffman distinguished by the function criteria three essential roles: the ones who performs, the ones for whom it performs and intruders who neither performs nor witness the spectacle. " But the emergence of favorable prospects for individuals generated some other roles in wich the information , regions of acces and and the function are used in some other purposes beside the consecrated ones. they were called discrepancied roles.The spectacularity of them consists in assuming and performing a different role: " informant " for having the access to backstage and information he simulates to the others actors that he is part of their team. "the accomplice" - they act as they are members of the public but in fact they are in a relationship of complicity with the performers ( teachers who assist at another colleagues class ), the Spotter " - the person who checks if the appearances performanced are not too far from reality , " professional buyer " - the person who watches the show from the public space but seeks to inform th competition of performers strategies, " intermediate " or " mediator " - a character that has access to destructive information , leaving the impression to the actors that he will keep their secrets. " non - person " - a person that plays no role performer or public role , nor claim to be what their not ( support staff of a school ) " service specialist " they seem members with a view to the performance of backstage ( school inspector in charge of training ) " confidant " - the person who has destructive information participating in activities of exposed or hidden areas ( school psychologist ) colleague " - has information about the performance to wich he did not attended , but acting as the same performance, " defector " - the person who is selling secrets to the public of the performance of teammates . Through all these performing "social actors" want to control the behavior of others by redefining situations and by inducing certain impressions. But influence is produced by building a world of cognitive objects for the public who will be influenced . Public relationship will necessarily lead to an attitude or performance of a positive significance for the performer.

George Gonos is a sociology teacher at Rutgers University 2, he presented a paper at the American Sociological Association3 in septmber 1977.In his paper he provides a general interpretation of Goffmans work, by his point of view. He argues that the initiate into American sociology might well come to know Goffman as a symbolic intractionist.That Goffman occupies a place within his school , sometimes as a major spokeperson,has been a frequent casual assertion in informal sociological talk and the (presumably) firmer conviction of many sociologists and sociological works their instrumental concern.His paper asserts that when Goffmans work is forced into the symbolic interactionist paradigm and made to reflect ,and speak to,its special concerns , much of the authors actual meaning and significance is lost , the result being some measure of distortion. A structuralist reading of Goffmans work frees up for correct theoretical understanding most of the elements that have been in terms of authors style as well as those that previously have been misinterpreted or have simply gone unnoticed. In this paper , the constructs of situation and frame represent two opposing paradigms that are engaged curently in the study of everyday life , but each must be seen as the derivative of a classical sociological tradition. "Situation" is a password that opens up an interactionist (or social action)aproach,the basic principles of wich are Weberian , while "frame" poses an aparatus for a kind of structuralism for wich Goffman is heavily indebted to Durkheim . The use within micro-sociology of these fundamental constructs activates many of the elements operated in each of these brother classical traditions and multiple points os comparison continually sugest themselves . In this paper , most of these must be left undeveloped . It should be clear that the identification and comparison of distinct theoretical aproaches , such as the two in wuestion here , is a project that requires some systematic method of it's own .This study follows the suggestion of Bierstedt (1960) '' to push [each] particular interpretation of social phenomena just as far as it is resonable to go in his effort to shed illumination on it .'' The interactionist perspective posits individual selves as the elementary , even the primer social entities , that is , existing prior to social structure . Mead, according to Blumer (1969),"so the human being as an organism having a self " . The interactionist version of the " myth of creation " proceeds from the existance of selves (having certain predisposition) , of a social order.Stuations and society are conceived of as "individual generated.The starting point of this process usually left unspoken , is called by Waller the "undifined situation",apparently not subject to any external constraints.For example , from Waller's Sociology of Teahcing.

The State University of New Jersey, commonly referred to as Rutgers University, Rutgers, or RU, is an American public research university and the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey in the United States. 3 The American Sociological Association is a non-profit association in U.S.A dedicated to advancing sociology as a specific discipline and profession

For Goffman , everyday social encounters do not pose the problem of coorination , because they are examples of the ritualised reproduction of cultural objects , according to preestablished formulae . Here , the primary forced exerted on social actors do not come from other individuals . "The concept of interaction is thus transformed : instead of refearind to mutual influence that might be peripheral and trivial , it now referes to a highly structured form of mutual fatefulness.(Goffman 1961) For Goffman , say Glaser4 and Strauss 5(1972),"interaction proceeds to its termination almost as inexorably as a Greek tragedy."

I think life as a show and the world as theatre scene are stereotypes that made history. "theatrical analogy" must be seen as a twist between rhetoric and manipulation. To influence is to make it appear , by manipulating contextual sense which requires interlocutors and cause to act accordingly. If the meaning of a phenomenon or an object is relative to the context in which it is located - is relative to the situation in which it belongs, then the manipulation of meaning becomes a manipulation of handling situation. Indeed, modifying the characteristics of the situation, we actually modify the meaning of the phenomenon, , since its meaning depends on the situation. The meaning is not the content of the acts performanced of "social actors", but is born from a commissioning relationship, in other words, the meaning of an object is created in his location of the context, whether that context consists of other objects or on case it serves as a framework for the existence and functioning. Analyzing what is happening in the communication, we realize that the "actors who communicate can not refer to their relative positions. These are elements of the situation, forming the context of "positioning". Understanding how communication occurs on the meaning of what is happening in the situation will turn, in part, to understand the way that communication has changed "positioning actors". Many sociologists mainly focus on "places" relative occupied by the different speakers in the communication, because the work of "actor" is not limited to the issuance of the message, but he performs with other interlocutors identity assigning them different places. The notion of "place" must be delimited by the notion of "role" and the "status".We talk about the role and status within a social system defined and organized, where the rules and laws are created by a social group or a part of it, leading the activities of each member. However, to achieve a communication is not necessary that a pre-builtstructure exists , for rules and laws to arise during the exchange of messages. What is needed is for everyone to be able to locate the other, as their relative locations to be recognized. "Place" is, to some extent, the identity that the "actor" upholds in the context of communication and towards its interlocutors ,here and now, according to the intention of communication and how they represent their stakes exchange.

Barney G. Glaser (born 1930) is an American sociologist and one of the founders of the grounded theory methodology. 5 Anselm Leonard Strauss (December 18, 1916 September 5, 1996) was an American sociologist internationally known as a medical sociologist

During communication we seek a position and we try to make us known in that position. This is a communicative intervention related to social existence. We can not exist without being defined in relation to the others we always exist in relation to the positions occupied by others and we communicate from the place we occupy. Thus, communication becomes the main instrument of existential positioning. In any situation of interpersonal communication each "actor" plays a "role" intending to assure the control of the situation and to be recognized as in the role that he defined. Unlike theatrical performer, the actor himself is a real individual that is experiencing real, unpredictable situations. We need to analyze them quickly and efficiently, because the result of our interactions are the ones that set up our own integrity. Intervening through communication on the position of the interlocutors presented in the situation, it may give rise to a sense that makes people interlocutors to do what he wants to do, or to create and maintain this impression cultivated. Communication should be seen as a complex process in which the information and message are less important than the essential question of knowing to whom you are adressing. This communication process is apparently closely related to the relationship between "places", that form and change in interaction. By introducing the notion of "place" in interaction, is actually addressed an important aspect of the dynamics of communication. To sum up, this essay shows how Goffman is the one who exemplified the best the social imagination.I think that Goffman is the most influential sociologist of the 20th century.

Bibliography: 1. Goffman , E.(2007) Viata Cotidiana ca Spectacol.Bucuresti, Ed.Comunicare.ro 2. s.l s.n s.a The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. [Online] Disponibil pe: < http://www.studymode.com > [Accesat la data de 16.01.2014]. 3. s.l s.n s.a The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. [Online] Disponibil pe: < http://www.wikipedia.com > [Accesat la data de 16.01.2014]. 4. s.l s.n s.a Viaa cotidian ca spectacol. [Online] Disponibil pe: < http://www.infocarte.ro > [Accesat la data de 16.01.2014].