Week 6 has arrived and thus a new reading is to be read and new topic to be talked about. This week's reading covers the idea of social life, life as a game or drama as described by Goffman using his dramaturlogical metaphor. In 285 words (probably a disarray of 1000), I will endeavor to elaborate.
Goffman, a symbolic interactionist, decided to represent his understanding of social life using the dramaturlogical metaphor. Now, Dramaturgy as a theory is simply the idea that all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely actors. Person's act to convince others of a certain concept of self and in doing that they must perform and we learn how to play our assigned roles from others. Thus it can be said that the self isn't so much a stable, coherent entity as it is something that is defined and redefined by interactions with others.
Front Stage: what the 'audience' sees, so, how you present yourself either intentionally or unintentionally, ie: body language, appearance* and manner**.
Back Stage: what the audience doesn't see, where the performer can be out of character without affecting the performance.
*Appearance: refers to stimuli that works at a superficial
level (and where first impressions start and end, as it's said it takes 30
seconds to figure someone out and that is rarely overridden in the minds of
others), what is immediately observed about a person, telling one of
their status and/or state.
**Manner: refers to stimuli that indicates what role the 'performer' will
take in an oncoming social situation, how one carries themselves, primarily
nonverbal cues (expressions, gestures, body language). ie: Aggression
will signal to others to expect the social situation be directed by the
aggressor, just as a meek 'performer' would signal to others that s/he is able
to be lead.
At the end of the day, you'll find that most performances will incorporate the values of the society that they are in, which is why you might choose to hide certain aspects of yourself that will taint your performance as a functioning entity in society.
It also becomes difficult to define where the backstage and front stage actually is. Think of work, you would imagine that front stage is the shop front (see, even front is part of the title) and that back stage would be out back somewhere with your colleagues, but is that really back stage? You might have to put on a certain performance with your colleagues that you normally wouldn't (ie: you hate swearing, but you work with a bunch of truckies and they'll think you're a sissy if you don't cuss). So where is the back stage, then? I argue that it's when you're on your on, I argue still that back stage might be when you click 'anonymous' and write what you actually think on the internet. So, when you think about it, our back stage self must be kind of a prat.
References:
Goffman, Erving. 1971. "Performances." Pp. 28-82 in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Goffman believes that ‘man makes the bed he is sleeping in’ (Posner 1978).
ReplyDeleteI tend to disagree with one of your criticisms of Goffman’s presentation of the self: that it is ‘too transfixed on small-scale interactions’. Posner (1978, p5) agrees with you, in that he focuses too much on micro-interactions and the ‘nooks and crannies of everyday life’ and is decidedly against following up theories and researching or questioning the heck out of that. However, is it not in the studying and observing of the insignificant informalities and formalities of the relationships and interactions we have the interesting core of sociology?
Goffman states that as individual sets the stage and himself before others and as his performance is created the values of society become enmeshed with the values taken on by the performer during his performance. This is done so through a person’s behaviours (Goffman 1971). For example, Goffman suggests that fronts are selected out of a number of choices rather than being individually created (1971). Consequently the scene in which a performer acts out their presentation facilitates and habitually continues this process – values are cycled and recycled by performers and society alike. As we act within these fronts and try and work out the pattern to them, we must think about our own small-scale interactions to make up the whole story.
In my own life I see this taking form in my workplace. The customers I serve exist in a setting and a front that has been created for me to step into each Saturday and Sunday. There are expectations of my roles and I perform that role because I am being paid to do so and I also like the interactions I have with the customers. Each interaction involves the same structure: greeting, asking what the customer needs, taking their money, and wishing them a good day. The performance of ‘the customer is always right’ must come into play at each step – often requiring me to have a humble attitude even when the customer is completely wrong. But the cycle and the performance continues regardless. Effectively in studying the ‘nooks and crannies’ of these small-scale interactions, is a picture of the bigger interactions are created? I make the bed that I sleep in it too.
Posner, J 1978, ‘Erving Goffman: His presentation of self’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, vol.8, no.1, pp67-78.