A Summary of the Major Works of Erving Goffman

'Summary of the Major Works' (p. 8-9). From Yves Winkin and Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz's "Introduction" to Erving Goffman (A Critical Introduction to Media and Communication Theory, 4). New York: Peter Lang, 2013. 1-10.

 

Goffman was intensely interested in the self as a social product. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) introduced the concept of impression management, referring to information one participant conveys to others. He divided behavior into information one gives (deliberately) and information one gives off (inadvertently). He distinguished between front stage (where the self is visible, as in the dining room) and back stage (where it is hidden from public view, as in the kitchen). The social self can be examined in a wide range of contexts. Asylums (1961a) studied selves within a total institution (a place to live and work, cut off from the larger society). Stigma (1963b) considered the plight of someone with a spoiled identity (any attribute that discredits them).

For Goffman, social selves were always interacting with others, relationships connected individuals to the social world. Behavior in Public Places (1963a) divided contexts of co-presence into gatherings (whn people are co-present, but not necessarily interacting) and occasions (social events having temporal and spatial bounaries, with participants likely to interact). In either, face engagements exist as a joint focus, such as a conversation. Any time someone wishes to hide an activity or discourage involvement, they can read a newspaper or immerse themselves in an iPad, these being involvement shields.  Encounters (1961b) emphasized social roles (activities required by a position): people can stay in role (behaving appropriately), break role (behaving inappropriately), or set a role aside (playing with role expectations). Interaction Ritual (1967) examined the rules of conduct binding actors together, specifically, face (posivie social value a person claims) and face-work (actions taken to maintain face), deference (actions conveying appreciation of others), and demeanor (nonverbal behaviors conveying one's desirable qualities). Strategic Interaction (1969b) examined the various moves and styles of play available to the players of the game. Relations in Public (1971) examined the link between relationships and public life, introducing a single (person alone), a with (person obviously with another), and tie-signs (evidence of relationship). Goffman included remedial work (efforts to repair interaction) such as accounts (explanation of what occurred); he discussed social identities (membership in categories, including age, race, gender) and their associated social norms, rules, and interpersonal rituals. 

Goffman's intellectual endeavor throughout his career can be summarized as examining the construction of social reality from different approaches. First, he proposed three major analogies for understanding interaction: theater, ritual, and game, to be discussed further in chapter 3. Second, he analyzed how interaction rules help structure social reality. Because social rules are easily broken, our sense of reality can be easily shattered. Behavior in Public Places expanded upon the distinction made earlier in Encounters between focused interaction (when people cooperate to sustain a focus of attention, as in conversation) and unfocused interaction, (when people glean information through observation, as in noticing a stranger's clothes). Finally, he studied the frames (contexts within which participants act) used to make sense of behavior. In Frame Analysis (1974) his focus was on keying (the way in which a frame can be reinterpreted) and scripts (a piece of the stream of behavior). Goffman occasionally examined the construction of social categories (gender, race, class), as in Gender Advertisements, but the majority of his work examined the self as constructed in public, in the presence of strangers. In Forms of Talk (1981a) he introduced response cries (interjections, like "oops!") and footing (participant's alignment). Talk was always one of Goffman's topics, for he took conversation to be the central act of communication; it was most clearly the focus of Forms of Talk, his final book. [Note 7: We have not included Where the Action Is (1969c) because it consists of reprints of three previously available essays (two from Interaction Ritual and one from Encounters).]

 

Teoría paranoica de la observación mutua

 

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