Erving Goffman:

UNIT 5 ERVING GOFFMAN: PRESENTATION Presentation of Self

OF SELF
Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Self and Everyday Life
5.3 Goffman: Life and Times
5.3.1 Biographical Sketch
5.3.2 Social and Intellectual Context
5.4 Dramaturgy as a Metaphor
5.5 The Presentation of Self
5.5.1 The Performance
5.5.2 Impression Management
5.5.3 The Physical Setting: The Stage
5.6 Let Us Sum Up
5.7 References
5.8 Specimen Answers to Check Your Progress

5.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this Unit, you should be able to:
• Explain dramaturgy in social interaction process;
• Narrate what is front stage and back stage;
• Discuss impression management.

5.1 INTRODUCTION
In our previous unit we studied George Herbert Mead’s effort to understand the
individual self as an evolving entity through social interaction, primaryly through
the act of communication. Erving Goffman takes the theme further by exploring
the interactional process in everyday life. The study of Interaction process
constitutes a central topic of sociological theory. Erving Goffman is often
credited as being of the most creative theorist of interaction process. As an
interaction theorist, his primary interest was to understand the interaction order
that involves face to face interaction amongst individuals. Process of Interaction
even though is a micro process it constitutes a distinct realm of social reality and


Contributed by Dr. Pravati Dalua, Assistant Professor, Kamala Nehru College, Delhi University.
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Self and Social it has its own dynamic ways of functioning. Macro phenomena such as complex
Reality
systems of market, polity, religion, stratification even though cannot be explained
solely in terms of micro level analysis but yet they contribute towards
understanding of social realities at macro level in a significant way, as these are
always transformed in unique ways by the individuals who are involved in the
process of interaction. Even though macro phenomena always constrain and
frame the course of our interaction but yet what appears primarily as the real
world is a representation and in many ways, it is being derived from the dynamic
practices of individuals as they deal with each other in various interactional
situations.
In this unit we look at his primary ideas in the introductory section. But to fully
understand a scholar it is important that we look at his life’s journey to see how
that his influenced his motivation and consequently his writing. Similarly, the
intellectual climate when is situated in also has a huge bearing on one’s thought
process. So, in our section 5.3 we look at these aspects. In the next sections we
look at various elements of Goffman’s central ideas.

5.2 SELF AND EVERYDAY LIFE

Erving Goffman’s most well-known book The Presentation of Self in Everyday
Life, published in 1959, provides a detailed description and analysis of interaction
process by comparing the human world to a theatre and human beings to that of
the actors in a theatrical stage. He uses the idea of drama as a metaphor through
which he tries to understand how we perform different roles. Shakespear’s lines
from his play As You like It:
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
reflect Goffman’s approach to understanding the self in everyday context. In
order to “put their best” individuals seek to control their appearance and physical
setting in which they perform along with their actual behavior and gestures. Take
for instance the efforts the public speakers do to deliver a speech before their
audience. They organise rehearse their presentations in advance. Similar
rehearsal is also done by the musicians and athletes before their performance.
According to Goffman all social occasions have dramaturgic character.
Individuals always make some efforts to convey a good impression on others as
individuals’ general appearance and overall demeanor are highly relevant for the
identity they seek to project. For example, students try to appear knowledgeable
but nonchalant as they when they take part in class room discussions; lawyers
strive to exude confidence as they argue their cases in court, and employees make
sure they look busy when their supervisors come for inspection. He perceived the
self not as a possession of the actor but rather is the outcome of dramatic
interaction between actor and audience in an interaction situation. The self “is a
dramatic effect arising… from a scene that is presented” (Goffman, 1959:253).
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In essence, Goffman is not addressing larger structures and how they have a Erving Goffman:
Presentation of Self
bearing on the self. He is also not looking at essential nature of the self but is in
fact saying that the self is constantly being fashioned by the individuals
depending on their audiences. The roles that are assigned to us by society are not
just given but actively performed by the actors or individuals. Erving
Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, published in 1959, provides
a detailed description and analysis of process and meaning in mundane
interaction. Goffman, as a product of the Chicago School and writes from a
symbolic interactionist perspective, emphasising a qualitative analysis of the
component parts of the interactive process. His The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life (1959) laid out the dramaturgical perspective he used in
subsequent studies, such as Asylums (1961) and Stigma (1964). In Frame
Analysis (1979) and Forms of Talk (1981).

5.3 GOFFMAN:LIFE AND TIMES

Through a micro-sociological analysis and focus on unconventional subject
matter, Goffman explores the details of individual identity, group relations, the
impact of environment, and the movement and interactive meaning of
information. He focused on the ways people “frame” or define social reality in
the communicative process. His perspective, provides new insight into the nature
of social interaction and the psychology of the individual. Before we go into
details of his work let us have a look at his life, the social context, and the
intellectual influences which have a bearing on his writings.

5.3.1 Biographical Sketch

Goffman was born in 1922 in
Mannville, Alberta, Canada to
Max Goffman and Anne
Goffman. The Goffmans
belonged to Ukrainian Jews
who were part of the great flow
of Jewish migration from
Russia to Canada in early 20th
century. Goffman did his
schooling in St. Johns
Technical High School in
Winnipeg then later became a
student at the University of
Manitoba. He left his
University studies to join film
industry for the National Film
Board of Canada established by
John Grierson. Goffman met
Dennis Wrong, a renowned
(Source:
North American sociologist
[Link]
during this time. 71
Self and Social
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This meeting inspired him to join University of Toronto, where he graduated with
a B.A. in sociology and anthropology in 1945. Afterwards, he moved on to the
University of Chicago and received his M.A. and Ph.D for sociology, in 1949 and
1953 respectively. While studying at the University of Chicago, Goffman did
field research in the Shetland Islands. The research done here gave Goffman the
inspiration to write his first major work The Presentation of Self in Everyday
Life. After graduation from the University of Chicago, from 1954-1957 Goffman
was a research fellow at the National Institute for Mental Health in Bethesda.
Participant observation done here led to his essays on mental illness and 'total
institutions' which came together to from another one of his works Asylums:
Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates.
Subsequently Goffman was a professor in the sociology department at Berkeley
from 1957-1968. After Berkeley, Goffman moved on to be a professor at the
University of Pennsylvania until his death in 1982.

5.3.2 Social and Intellectual Context

Goffman was an influential figure for generation of people who were beginning
to question and challenge the macro structures of power. The 1960s America saw
growing campaigns against racial discrimination, among other issues. This was
the time when Martin Luther King Jr.-- an African American pacifist and activist
led movements against the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other
civil [Link] many universities, but most significantly at Berkeley where
Goffman taught, the students challenged the traditional authority of university
administration.
Many scholars and sociologists were beginning to question the all encompassing
nature of structures to say that individuals in fact interpret and manipulate larger
structures and symbolic structures of meanings depending on situations. Herbert
Blumer, who was one of the leading advocates of symbolic interactionism, was
against statistical generalisations and variables because they do not actually do
anything. He was supposed to have remarked where is class ? Do you see it? He
argues, it can only brought out by its actual play and interpretation by actors in
actual settings. Blumer was one of the influential figures for Goffman. The
symbolic integrationist school, as you might have already learned in your
previous unit, was most notable for drawing attention to the micro process of
interaction where communication plays a key role. Individuals act on the premise
of a shared understanding of meaning within their social context. One can see in
Goffman’s writing a similar thinking. Goffman is often associated with symbolic
interaction school of thinking for his analysis on the situational interactions
between individuals. However, Gary Alan Fine and Philip Manning have said
that Goffman never engaged in serious dialogue with other theorists. Though
Goffman is often associated with the symbolic interaction school of sociological
72 thought, he did not see himself as a representative of it, and so Fine and Manning
conclude that he "does not easily fit within a specific school of sociological Erving Goffman:
Presentation of Self
thought" (Fine and Manning, 2003:34.). We do see how ever his references to
Durkhiem for his concept of society and the rituals that reflect that conception.
For Goffman the everyday rituals reflect the larger societal structures that
become the context for the individual. Goffman uses a picture frame, as analogy
to represent structures which is used to hold together an individual’s context of
what they are experiencing in their life.

5.4 THE PRESENTATION OF THE SELF

Goffman uses dramaturgy as a metaphor in understanding the interaction process.

Therefore, his work is designation as “dramaturgical”. Now let’s pose this
question to our self what do we see in a drama or theater? Think about this
metaphor. We find the stage, actor, audience, a dressing room or a backstage,
props in a theater. Likewise, in Goffman’s theory society is viewed as a theater
and a social stage upon which we enact our performances, Goffman called this
dramaturgical analysis. This metaphoric understanding gives us an interesting
account of the way we look at society and social interaction.
Individuals are conceived as a performer in their everyday life this may appear to
us in a degree of contrivance, of artificiality but that is true to Goffman’s
understanding of social reality. While interacting with others we are trying to
control the ways in which others perceive us, and we might slant or alter slightly
our presentation of self in different contexts so that we can manage to pose
ourselves positively in the eyes of others. We learn to do this at a very young age
inside family at first and later on with others friends, relatives and so on. Overall,
this process is called the dramaturgical presentation of self, which is a person’s
effort to control their impressions in the eyes of others. Even though there have
been significant ambiguities regarding the interpretation of his theory (Ransome,
2010:182-85) but in a less extreme case we can understand that in Goffman’s
work there is a concern for cultural scripts, normative rules and the ways in
which individuals manage their impressions and play their roles by manipulating
their gestures, props as metaphorical tools to understand what we do and why we
do as societal beings in our everyday life. His theory too has a reference to the
idea of stage that involves the concern with physical space and object in the form
of how stage settings are being framed in everyday interactional situations and
creates an ambiance of theater. The interactions that appears to us as
performances in everyday situations with this ambiance creates a sense of reality
even tough not the whole of it but partly it contributes to the making of macro
social realities.

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Self and Social Check Your Progress 1
Reality
Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer.
ii) Check your answer with those given at the end of the unit.
1) What is the significance of metaphors in Goffman’s theoretical formulation?
Answer briefly.
…………………………………………………………………………...……
…………………………………………………………………………...……
2) What is dramaturgical presentation of self? Write in two lines.
…………………………………………………………………………...……
…………………………………………………………………………...……

5.4 DRAMATURGY AS A METAPHOR

Goffman’s dramaturgical approach rests on the basic argument that individuals
deliberately exchange their gestures that provide others with information about
how to respond. Through exchange of gestures we develop a ‘definition of
situation’ to carry out our social life in a cooperative manner. By constructing
these definitions of situations individuals in their everyday life engage
themselves in a series of performances. These performances are executed through
gestures “to present one-self” in a particular manner as a person so as to get
desirable and expected treatment
Our life, in the dramaturgical model, is visualised as a series of performances.
While I am standing here, I am engaged in a performance in which I am trying to
convey not only information about Goffman to you, but information about me
through the confidence in which I speak on the topic, the manner in which I do
so; the mastery of speaking in front of others, and so on.
The roles that the individuals play thus are the images individuals want to project
and the script is the content through which we communicate to others. The roles
are being performed in a way so as to make an audience, who are the observers of
the performance, to believe in what is being enacted before them. These roles are
not merely insignificant performances but can truly be seen as important
decisions that individuals take in their everyday life. These decisions range from
dressing oneself to that of display of body languages in an interactional situation.
For instance, individuals do think and take important decisions as to what should
one wear casual or formal, what make-up to put on if occasions of formal and
social gatherings, what kind of body language to display at formal and informal
gatherings. Our choices, inevitably, influence how the things we say are
perceived by others. Making eye contact and smiling as we compliment someone
adds vigor to what we say. Therefore, people judge and accept the compliment to
be genuine and do not get distracted while complimenting. These performances
revolve around certain interrelated elements. And a discussion of these
interrelated elements can help us in understanding the dynamisms associated with
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dramaturgical interaction that individuals perform in their everyday life. The Erving Goffman:
Presentation of Self
following sections would elaborate on these key elements in the theory of
dramaturgy.
Box 5.1
KEY QUOTE-Erving Goffman, the presentation of self in everyday life
(1959)
This self itself does not derive from its possessor, but from the whole scene
of his action, being generated by that attribute of local events which renders
them interpretable by witnesses. A correctly staged and performed scene
leads the audience to impute a self to a performed character, but this
imputation –this self-is a product of a scene that comes off, and is not a cause
of it. The self, then, as a performed character, is not an organic thing that has
a specific location, whose fundamental fate is to be born, to mature, and to
die; it is a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a scene that is presented, and
the characteristic issue, the actual crucial concern, is whether it will be
credited or discredited (Goffman,1959:223).

5.5.1 The Performance

Goffman uses the term ‘performance’ to refer to ‘all the activity of an individual
which occurs before a particular set of observers and in intended to exert some
influence on others. The main elements of performance in dramaturgy are the
strategies of impression management. It is oriented towards the maintenance of a
single definition of the situation. As he puts it: ‘the key factor [in the structure of
social encounters] is the maintenance of a single definition of the situation, this
definition having to be expressed, and this expression sustained in the face of a
multitude of potential disruptions’ (Goffman 1959: 225).
5.5.2 Impression Management
Central to Goffman's concern is his notion of impression management. It is
mostly oriented to guarding against a series of unexpected action that might arise
while interacting with others. These unexpected actions can be in the form of
unintended gestures, inopportune intrusions, faux pas or intentionally making a
scene. According to Goffman, we use various mechanisms, called sign vehicles,
to present ourselves to others that is free from any disruption. “When an
individual projects a definition of the situation and thereby makes an implicit or
explicit claim to be a person of a particular kind, he automatically exerts a moral
Demand upon the others, obliging them to value and treat him in the manner that
persons of his kind have a right to expect (Goffman, 1959:24).” When trying to
make a good impression, it is essential to present yourself in best manner
possible as the majority of peoples’ first opinions will be judged on appearance.
The clothing we wear and the specific style we present tells the audience a lot
about what kind of person we are. For example, you are buying a stereo, the
salesperson is attempting to construct a definition of the situation that will
suggest that you need to have this high end and expensive product because you
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Self and Social are an individual with good tastes, while you are trying to construct a definition
Reality
which suggests that while you appreciate good music, you also have financial
considerations but you don’t want to look too cheap either. So, it becomes
somewhat of a struggle between actors in different situations. Furthermore, a
good sales representative will try hard to persuade you that he is not really a
salesman at all who only looks for profit rather he too knows to pay his sincerity
to a person who is known to him. On the other hand, you are aware of the fact
that he is a salesman thus you try to avoid providing him too much information
that might go against you while bargaining for a product. In managing such kind
of situation, we create impressions that Goffman calls sign vehicles which
includes both our language as well as our body language. We create impressions
by our expressions. However, he argues the expressions we show are the
elements of our expressiveness over which we have less control because
individuals are constrained by societal norms and values. What front we can put
on and in what context these are mostly determined by the norms of society to a
large extent and we don’t actually have that much choice while playing many
social roles. A successful performance depends on involvement of both actor and
the audience. Mystification is a technique mostly employed by the performers
that entails maintenance of restricting contact between the performer and the
audience. This social distance helps in probable disruptions in the performance
by restricting the audience questioning the performance.

5.5.3 Physical Setting: The Stage

The physical setting, where a role is performed, in Goffman’s theoretical frame is
relevant to understand the ways in which impression is managed in actual
situations. For example, a high level corporate executive would expect to have a
well-furnished exclusive office for himself, not a small cubicle right among her
subordinate officials. Therefore, dramaturgy has a concern with the settings in
which people perform their roles may be seen as reflecting their attempts to
control the general social definition of situation (Johnson 2008:121) Every stage
has two sides, one is the actual stage where the real performance takes place
before an audience and the backstage, where rehearsals and preparations take
place. ‘Front’ is ‘that part of the individual’s performance which regularly
functions in a general and fixed fashion to define the situation for those who
observe the performance’. Back stage on the other hand refers to a where
informal behavior appears. In life also, there are two regions, each with its own
set of behavioral norms. For example, a couple may have a fight, where they
raise their voices and call each other names. But the minute their kids come
home, they change automatically into their good and normal selves and address
each other pleasantly and act as if everything is normal. This, essentially, is an
act that is being put on for the benefit of their kids who are their audience in this
example. In private, the couple’s displays of anger to each other are perfectly
acceptable behavior, but in front of their children, their angry discussions are
unacceptable so they often resort to the acting of loving parents. In this
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comparison, the role of the kids as the audience is also important as they are Erving Goffman:
Presentation of Self
pretending to accept what their parents are trying to project before them even
though they happen to know that they parent fight. However, this does not mean
that Goffman is assuming that life is based on a set of scripts or cultural
prescriptions rather these are highly performative and dynamic in nature. These
performances are always emotionally loaded.

Activity 1
Make a record of situations or circumstances where people are most likely to
face the dilemma between trying to make a good impression on others versus
just “being themselves”.

According to Goffman there are three things an individual usually uses to

establish a social front through Setting, Appearance and Manner. Setting refers to
the fixed elements of front – the physical layout of a room and associated
background props. These are the most commonly used sign vehicles that are used
to put an image of ourselves in front of others. These constitute our appearance,
the manner in which we interact, as well as the chosen social setting. Appearance
consists of those things we most closely associate with the person themselves –
the things which ‘follow them around’ and consists of fixed attributes such as
one’s racial background or age, as well as things like clothes and the items one
chooses to carry around. Manner is the attitude to one’s setting one displays –
confidence, humility, authority etc. We generally expect there to be consistency
between setting, appearance and manner, but these don’t always match up.
Similarly, Props acquire significant focus in dramaturgical analysis. In a play,
props brigs authenticity to the scene being enacted. It helps to establish a
theatrical scene. On stage a student’s identity is being established by his books,
school bags. Likewise, in real life, props play a major role. For example, a
doctor’s stethoscope helps to determine the person’s profession. Similarly, a
professor in a university might have a number of books on the subject he teaches,
arranged in his office to create an impression that he has mastery over his subject.
At his home, however, there may be more paintings and crafts displayed rather
than books that reflect his passion for art. The physicals setting at home
constitute the back stage for the individual who is a professor in this example. It
exists at the physical setting where we think that our proposed audience are not
seeing us. The reason we act so very differently while on our front stages and
back stages is very same reason we are considered to be actors and we can use
the method of dramaturgical analysis in the first place. When we are on front
stage, putting our acting skills to the test and trying to show our audience how
well we can present ourselves. Our reputation and credibility relies on how well
our performance is. We want to keep things at a constant state of stability an
impression of ourselves that we think is appropriate in front of others. Within the
back stages we are able to express aspects of ourselves that the particular
audience may not find unacceptable. 77
Self and Social
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Box 5.2
Herbert Blumer’s critical evaluation of Dramaturgical Approach:
An intensive critique of Goffman's approach appears in a review, by Blumer
‘of Relations in Public’. Blumer, while commending both the book and
Goffman's work in general, discusses certain important weaknesses in the
approach. It should be noted here that H. G. Blumer is probably the best
known contemporary exponent of symbolic interactionism in its Chicago
School form and this is relevant to those who equate Goffman too readily
with symbolic interactionism in general and the Chicago School in particular.
The weaknesses Blumer finds stem from the narrowly constructed area of
human group life that he stakes out for study. He has limited the area of face-
to-face association with a corresponding exclusion of the vast sum of human
activity falling outside such association. Further he confined the study of
face-to-face association to the interplay of personal positioning at the cost of
ignoring what the participants are doing.
The approach overlooks the actual substantive content of human encounters
in its concern exclusively with the expressive forms of the encounters. The
resultant image of the human condition is a partial, truncated one. Blumer
also argues that without minimizing the fact that human beings in one
another's presence are sensitive to how they are being regarded, it is far-
fetched to assume that this form of self-awareness constitutes the major
concern of individuals in handling themselves at is to say, the dramaturgical
approach ignores the macrocosm within which its micro-level concerns are
imbedded. (Williams 1986:350-351).

Activity 2
Think of a social situation you have participated in or know about where
there are distinct “front stage” and “back stage” settings. Write a
sociological analysis that defines both the concepts and examine how the two
settings functions by analysing the kinds of performances that take place in
each setting and the relationship between these performances.

Check Your Progress 2

Note: i) Use the space given below for your answer.
ii) Check your answer with those given at the end of the unit.
1) State whether true or false
a) The book ‘Presentation of self in everyday life’ is written by [Link].
b) The actors are in their true self in their front stage performances.
c) Dramaturgy belongs to the tradition of macro sociological theories
because of its specific focus on interaction process in everyday life.
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2) Answer the following questions in two sentences each. Erving Goffman:
Presentation of Self
a) What is impression management?.
…………………………………………………………………………...……
…………………………………………………………………………...……
b) What distinguishes the front stage from the back stage?
…………………………………………………………………………...……
…………………………………………………………………………...……

5.3 LET US SUM UP

Goffman in his book Presentation of Self in Everyday Life uses the metaphor of
theater in order to portray the nuances and significance of interaction in everyday
life of individuals. Goffman theory of social interaction presents to us a
dramaturgical model of social life having an imagery of stage, actors playing
roles using various props in their everyday life situations. Here the audience
consists of other individuals who observe the role-playing and react to the
performances of the actor. Like in theatrical performances there too exists a
setting in social interaction that consists of a front stage and a back stage. The
front region is that part of the physical setting where the actors are on stage
before an audience. Individuals while playing a role at this imaginary region are
extra conscious of their audience and constantly monitor their behaviors vis-à-vis
their audience. There is also a back region, or 'back stage,' where individuals can
relax, be themselves, and the role or identity that they play when they are in front
of others. Central to the book and Goffman's theory is the idea that people, as
they interact together in social settings, are constantly engaged in the process of
impression management. It is that technique wherein each tries to present
themselves and behave in a way that saves them from embarrassment of
themselves in front of others. This is primarily done by both the audience and the
actor to ensure that all parties have the same definition of the situation. It means
that all understand what is meant to happen in that situation, what to expect from
the others involved.

5.5 REFERENCES
Fine, G. A., & Manning, P. (2003). Erving Goffman. The Blackwell Companion
to Major Contemporary Social Theorists, 34-62.
Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, London: Penguin
Group.
Ransome, P. (2010) Social Theory, UK: The Polity press
Johnson (2008) Contemporary Sociological Theory: An Integrated Multi-Level
Approach, USA: Springer.
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Williams, Simon Johnson “Appraising Goffman”, The British Journal of
Sociology, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Sep., 1986), pp. 348-369. Wiley on behalf of The
London School of Economics and Political Science. [Link]
590645, Accessed: 15-01-2018 18:15 UTC.

5.6 SPECIMEN ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR

PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) Goffman’s dramaturgical model is a metaphoric analysis of everyday
interaction process. Our life, in this model, is visualised as a series of
performances similar to what happens in a theater when an actor carries out a
performance. The roles are being performed in a way so as to make an
audience, who are the observers of the performance, to believe in what is
being enacted before them. The performances in interaction situations are
conducted by using various prop like metaphors that are usually used in on
stage performances.
2) The process of the dramaturgical presentation of self involves a person's
efforts to control their impressions in the eyes of others.

Check Your Progress 2

1) a) true
b) false
c) false
2) a) Goffman coined the term impression management to refer to our desire to
manipulate others’ impressions of us on the front stage. According to
Goffman, we use various mechanisms to present ourselves to others
through a social setting, appearance and the manner of interacting.
b) "front stage" where actions are visible to the audience and are part of the
performance. On the other hand, back stage is where the individuals can
be their selves and is invisible to the audience.

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