The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

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Overlook Press, 1973 - 259 pagine
The key work of one of the most influential sociologists of the twentieth century. Erving Goffman deals with human interaction in social situations using the metaphor of the stage. Role-playing is now recognized as not merely the province of the performer and the maladjusted neurotic, but as an integral and necessary function of daily living. Social techniques of self-presentation are illuminated by examples taken from detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions and a variety of occupational levels. One of the most interesting aspects of this study is its revelation of the many roles that must be assumed by everyone engaged in even the simplest life-situations. In the course of any day one may easily play a half-dozen parts: with the boss, with fellow-workers, with friends, with one's spouse, and so on. Dr. Goffman's analogy details how "acting" techniques are used in the most common everyday circumstances; it bares the mainsprings of manipulation that keep society moving.--From publisher description.

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Sommario

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
1
PERFORMANCES
17
TEAMS
77
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Informazioni sull'autore (1973)

Erving Goffman, an American sociologist, received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is known for his distinctive method of research and writing. He was concerned with defining and uncovering the rules that govern social behavior down to the minutest details. He contributed to interactionist theory by developing what he called the "dramaturgical approach," according to which behavior is seen as a series of mini-dramas. Goffman studied social interaction by observing it himself---no questionnaires, no research assistants, no experiments. The title of his first book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), became one of the themes of all of his subsequent research. He also observed and wrote about the social environment in which people live, as in his Total Institutions. He taught his version of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania; he died in 1983, the year in which he served as president of the American Sociological Association.

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