The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work

University of Bucharest

Erving Goffman

Coordinating teacher:
Claudia Ghisoiu
Student:
Craciun Alexandra-Cristina
Specialization: Sociology
First year of study, series 1, group 3
English level: Advanced 2

Bucharest
2016

The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work

University of Bucharest

Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman's work is exquisite product of one of the most original and rare
sociology ways to practice: to look closely - and long - social reality. He put the doctor
dressing gown and entered into psychiatric asylums, placed at the center of endless
interactions infinitesimal whose integration creates social life. Goffman was the one who
discovered sociology infinitely small that no object theorists and observers conceptless
did not know him so intuit that remained ignored, although obvious, as it happens with
everything at hand. - Pierre Bourdieu

The first translation into Romanian of a work of Erving Goffman will inspire
undoubtedly anthropological research, psycho-sociology and sociology from us.
Description smooth and thorough analysis of the interactions of everyday life as the show
focuses in a very original way some of the main orientations of contemporary sociology ethnomethodologically,

sociological

phenomenology,

structuralism,

symbolic

interactionism - and opens fruitful perspectives in science communication. - Septimiu

Chelcea

Erving Goffman was born at 11 June 1922 in Canada and dead at 19 November 1982.
He was a American sociologist and writer, considered "the most influential American
sociologist of the twentieth century".

Bucharest
2016

The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work

University of Bucharest

His best-known contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction.

"The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" is the form of dramaturgical analysis.
Goffman argues that people play roles in front of others. Whether you play in a group
or alone whenever we find ourselves in a stage before an audience, you played a
particular role in context or desires and at own funeral we are playing a leading role and
draw attention although basically we do nothing. Social conventions are just defined
roles. Outfit depends on the role, but we would always choose with a great care, we are
careful to every detail we could affect interpretation. We look in the mirror and we
choose the most appropriate attitude.
Problems of interpretation are everywhere. Sometimes it is hard to choose a role. You
can not be captain and major in the same time and if you wish attributes on the border of
the two tiers appear problems. Goffman's book is full of examples.
A sociologist well-known for his analyses of human interaction, Erving Goffman
relied less on formal scientific method than on observation to explain contemporary life.
He wrote on subjects ranging from the way people behave in public to the different
"forms" of talk, and always from the point of view that every facet of human behavior is
"significant in the strategy and tactics of social struggle, " aTimes Literary Supplement
critic says. Roy Harris, in anotherTimes Literary Supplement review, calls Goffman "a
public private-eye. . . forever on the lookout for candid-camera evidence which might
lead to divorce proceedings between ourselves and our social images." And, because
Goffman communicated so vividly the "horror and anguish-as well as some of the absurd
comedy-of everyday life, " New York Times Book Review critic Marshall Berman dubs
him "the Kafka of our time."
(Source: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html, website accessed on 20
January 2016 at 15:40)
Bucharest
2016

The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work

University of Bucharest

Goffman has performed a brilliant dramaturgical analysis of social behavior. The

American sociologist understood the daily evolution of the individual as a role play. He
said that "whenever an individual is found in the presence of others, has reason to
manipulate others impression it do about it so that it serve its own interests." ( Stefan
Boncu,

Social

psychology,

course

http://www.psih.uaic.ro/~sboncu/romana/Curs_psihologie_sociala/Curs23.pdf,

23,
website

accessed on 20 January 2016 at 16:00 )

Although Goffman admitted that self-presentation helps to gain the approval of

others and to achieve goals, he viewed it as an essential condition of the interaction. To
interact, individuals must define the situation and the roles they will play. Selfpresentation is meant to communicate plans and definitions that each person gives his or
her identity. Once identities are established, each participant is required to wear
consistent with the identity that has picked and chosen to accept and respect the identity
of each other. Self-presentation allows participants to define what will be each; It makes
interactions easier to perform.. ( Stefan Boncu, Social psychology, course 23,
http://www.psih.uaic.ro/~sboncu/romana/Curs_psihologie_sociala/Curs23.pdf,

website

accessed on 20 January 2016 at 16:00 )

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was the first book to treat face-to-face
interaction as a subject of sociological study. Goffman treated it as a kind of report in
which he frames out the theatrical performance that applies to face-to-face interactions. 1
He believed that when an individual comes in contact with other people, that individual
will attempt to control or guide the impression that others might make of him by
changing or fixing his or her setting, appearance and manner. At the same time, the
person the individual is interacting with is trying to form and obtain information about
the individual.2

Bucharest
2016

The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work

University of Bucharest

Goffman also believed that all participants in social interactions are engaged in
certain practices to avoid being embarrassed or embarrassing others. This led to
Goffman's dramaturgical analysis. Goffman saw a connection between the kinds of acts
that people put on in their daily life and theatrical performances.
In social interaction, as in theatrical performance, there is a front region where the
actors (individuals) are on stage in front of the audiences. This is where the positive
aspect of the idea of self and desired impressions are highlighted. There is also a back
region or stage that can also be considered as a hidden or private place where individuals
can be themselves and set aside their role or identity in society.3
The core of Goffman's analysis lies in this relationship between performance and life.
Unlike other writers who have used this metaphor, 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 his action; he is being watched by an
audience, but at the same time he is an audience for his viewers' play.
According to Goffman, the social actor has the ability to choose his stage and props
as well as the costume he would wear in front of a specific audience. The actor's main
goal is to keep coherent and adjust to the different settings offered him. This is done
mainly through interaction with other actors. To a certain extent this imagery bridges
structure and agency enabling each while saying that structure and agency can limit each
other.
A major theme that Goffman treats throughout the work is the fundamental
importance of having an agreed upon definition of the situation in a given interaction,
which serves to give the interaction coherency. In interactions or performances the
involved parties may be audience members and performers simultaneously; the actors
usually foster impressions that reflect well upon themselves and encourage the others, by
Bucharest
2016

The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work

University of Bucharest
various means, to accept their preferred definition. Goffman acknowledges that when the
accepted definition of the situation has been discredited some or all of the actors may
pretend that nothing has changed, provided that they find this strategy profitable to
themselves or wish to keep the peace. For example, when a person attending a formal
dinner and who is certainly striving to present himself or herself positively trips
nearby party-goers may pretend not to have seen the fumble; they assist the person in
maintaining face. Goffman avers that this type of artificial, willed, credulity happens on
every level of social organization, from top to bottom.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life,
website accessed on 20 January 2016 at 16:25)
Goffman pioneered the study of face-to-face interaction, also known as microsociology, which he made famous in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. He used
the imagery of the theater to portray the importance of human and social action. All
actions, he argued, are social performances that aim to give off and maintain certain
desired impressions of the self to others.
In social interactions, humans are actors on a stage playing a performance for an
audience. The only time that individuals can be themselves and get rid of their role or
identity

in

society

is

backstage

where

no

audience

is

present.

(Source:

http://sociology.about.com/od/Profiles/p/Erving-Goffman.htm, website accessed on 21

January 2016 at 11:32)
I believe that people are the actors of social life and Erving Goffman was the first
who try to understand the mysteries of human interaction and how people build their own
roles they play in everyday life.
Everyone wearing different masks to make liked by those around him. Thus, people
are actors every day, whether they are at work, at school, at home or at the caf. We are
directors, screenwriters and actors. We write and play roles. Everything depends on us.
That I learned from Goffman. And I've learned that "Universal Human Nature is not a
very human thing". (E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1959)

Bucharest
2016

The Faculty of Sociology and Social Work

University of Bucharest

Bibliografie

1. http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html
2. Stefan

Boncu,

Social

psychology,

course

23,

http://www.psih.uaic.ro/~sboncu/romana/Curs_psihologie_sociala/Curs23.pdf
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life
4. http://sociology.about.com/od/Profiles/p/Erving-Goffman.htm
5. E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1959

Bucharest
2016

1
2
3

Smith, Greg (2006). Erving Goffman

Trevino, James. Goffman's Legacy (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003)
Ritzer, George. Sociological Theory (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008)