Can I just substitute an interpretive dance in place of a list?

[phalangingle]

Although I am generally of the opinion that I would never be a member of a club that would have someone like me as a member, I decided to give this a try.

Comments

[phalangingle]

Goffman’s Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life aims to elaborate the dramaturgical dimension of social establishments. Performance is defined as “all the activity of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his continuous presence before a particular set of observers and which has some influence on the observers” (22). Observes do not have unmediated access to expressions of the individual self. Instead, observers only perceive the expressive equipment (body language, linguistic signs, etc) through which “expressions” of the subject are “expressed”. In Goffman’s terms this is the distinction between impressions given and those given off

[uberconfused]

I'd be interested in your take on Geertz' notion of culture as compared to Goffman's. Are they the same, different?

[northrop_fried]

Do you think Goffman's dramaturgical analysis reduces power relations to self-sustaining functions? In other words, could you assimilate Goffman's mode of analysis to a Gramscian critique?

[uberconfused]

It's the most important one, that's why! What Goffman have you read?

[uberconfused]

I was actually kidding. "Presentation of Self" is a required reading for most sociologists, and only a few of us ever get beyond that to any of his other work. I've read bits of "Frame Analysis," but none of the other stuff.