The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

erving goffman

In what the General Practitioner called 'this intelligent searching work', the author of "Stigma" and "Asylums" presents an analysis of the structures of social encounters from the perspective of the dramatic performance. He shows us exactly how people use such 'fixed props' as houses, clothes, and job situations; how they combine in teams resembling secret societies; and, how they adopt discrepant roles and communicate out of character. Professor Goffman takes us 'backstage' too, into the regions where people both prepare their images and relax from them; and he demonstrates in painful detail what can happen when a performance falls flat.

Genres sociologynonfictionpsychologyphilosophyanthropologysocial sciencetheoryscienceacademicsocial

259 pages, Hardcover

First published May 20,1959

This edition

Format: 259 pages, Hardcover
Published: January 1, 1999 by Peter Smith Pub Inc
ISBN: 9780844670171
ASIN: 0844670170
Language: English

About the author

erving goffman

Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born American sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century".
In 2007, The Times Higher Education Guide listed him as the sixth most-cited author of books in the humanities and social sciences.
Goffman was the 73rd president of the American Sociological Association. His best-known contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction. This took the form of dramaturgical analysis, beginning with his 1956 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Goffman's other major works include Asylums (1961), Stigma (1963), Interaction Ritual (1967), Frame Analysis (1974), and Forms of Talk (1981). His major areas of study included the sociology of everyday life, social interaction, the social construction of self, social organization (framing) of experience, and particular elements of social life such as total institutions and stigmas.