The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Social science

First published: 1956
Print length: 259 pagesDoubleday, 1990

Description

Erving Goffman uses theatrical performance as a framework for understanding ordinary social interaction. Whenever people enter one another’s presence, he argues, they present versions of themselves and try to guide the impressions others form. His dramaturgical analysis treats social encounters as performances shaped by setting, conduct, audience expectations, and the practical work of maintaining a credible role. Detailed observations of customs from many regions show how these techniques vary while serving a common purpose. The concept of impression management makes etiquette, occupational behavior, and everyday self-presentation legible as coordinated social activity. Rather than dismissing such performances as mere dishonesty, Goffman examines how they help produce the shared definitions on which interaction depends.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Academic · Dense · Essayistic

Pace

Measured

Tone

Cerebral · Detached · Philosophical

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Information

Emotional intensity

1 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 4 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

ClassCommunityIdentityKnowledge and truthPowerWork

About Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born American sociologist whose work made ordinary social encounters a central object of serious study. Associated with symbolic interaction, he examined how people produce a workable sense of self and situation through small acts of interpretation, display, concealment, and cooperation. His characteristic method joined close attention to conduct with sharply chosen organizing metaphors. In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, theatrical performance becomes a model for understanding impression management; Stigma follows the interpersonal labor created when a person is treated as departing from a group’s norms. Goffman also studied how settings shape experience. Asylums analyzes the disciplined lives produced by “total institutions,” while Frame Analysis investigates the conceptual structures through which people decide what is happening around them. Across these subjects, he moved between detailed cases and broad social theory without losing sight of gestures, roles, expectations, and practical negotiations. His distinctive achievement was to show how much social order depends on routines that usually pass unnoticed.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Doubleday
Language: English
ISBN: 9780385094023

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