In Erving Goffman’s novel from 1959, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman uses a dramaturgical approach in order to further exemplify the ways in which there is a connection between theatrical performances and the kinds of acts individuals put on in their daily lives. Through these social interactions and performances in everyday life, the self is informed, changed and thus produced. To begin with, Goffman brings forth the notion that the articulateness of an individual, or the scope of an individual to give impressions, emerges from two completely different types of sign activity: the expressions that an individual gives, which is intentional, and the expressions that an individual gives off, that is unintentional. Goffman refers to the expression that one gives as
…show more content…
The ways in which an individual express themselves, explicitly or implicitly, makes it so that they are in fact what they claim to be. Goffman says there are two different practices that an individual occupies: defensive, which are the methods made to preserve their own projections, and protective, when a participant engages the individual to salvage the definition of the situation projected by someone else. Both of these practices make up the techniques used to protect the impression cultivated by an individual throughout their existence before others. This idea paves the way to one of Goffman 's most important notions, that of face to face interaction, which is defined as "the reciprocal influence of individuals upon one another 's actions when in one another 's immediate physical presence" (485). Goffman also includes how when an individual is playing a part, there are two extremes that can come about. The individual can be taken in by their own act or they can be cynical about their
The ways in which an individual express themselves, explicitly or implicitly, makes it so that they are in fact what they claim to be. Goffman says there are two different practices that an individual occupies: defensive, which are the methods made to preserve their own projections, and protective, when a participant engages the individual to salvage the definition of the situation projected by someone else. Both of these practices make up the techniques used to protect the impression cultivated by an individual throughout their existence before others. This idea paves the way to one of Goffman 's most important notions, that of face to face interaction, which is defined as "the reciprocal influence of individuals upon one another 's actions when in one another 's immediate physical presence" (485). Goffman also includes how when an individual is playing a part, there are two extremes that can come about. The individual can be taken in by their own act or they can be cynical about their