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Erving Goffman

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Paperback – June 1, 1959

by Erving Goffman (Author)

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Based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions, here is a notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves, using theatrical performance as a framework.

This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience.

Print length

259 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Anchor
Publication date

June 1, 1959
Dimensions

5.17 x 0.57 x 7.98 inches
ISBN-10

9780385094023
ISBN-13

978-0385094023
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Editorial Reviews

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A study of human behavior in social situations and the way we appear to others. Dr. Goffman has employed as a framework the metaphor of theatrical performance. Discussions of social techniques are based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions.

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uman behavior in social situations and the way we appear to others. Dr. Goffman has employed as a framework the metaphor of theatrical performance. Discussions of social techniques are based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0385094027
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor (June 1, 1959)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 259 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780385094023
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385094023
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.57 x 7.98 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #38,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22 in Sociology of Social Theory
- #101 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)
- #228 in Interpersonal Relations (Books)

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676 ratings

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Erving Goffman

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Erving Goffman was Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania until his death in 1982. He is recognized as one of the world's foremost social theorists and much of his work still remains in print. Among his classic books are The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life; Interaction Ritual; Stigma; Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity; and Frame Analysis. William B. Helmreich is a professor of sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and City College. He has written Against All Odds, The Enduring Community, Saving Children, and The Things They Say Behind Your Back all available from Transaction.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

676 global ratings

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4 star		14%
3 star		7%
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1 star		4%

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Ed

A haunting and existential read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 16, 2023

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After reading this book I am convinced...

-People do not exist, personas do.
-The world and life can be divided into on-stage and off-stage.
-All clothes are costumes
-All history is story
-Everywhere one stands or sits is a set and the props and decorations are a crucial part and coaxing out the correct characters for the scene.

It's a second-nature game everyone plays but few stop to read into it with a book lime this. It hides in plain sight, and it is a theatrical expectation that seems eternally married to the bedrock of conciousness.

It's very dry and abstract but if it is finished the world thereafter is forever changed.

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Kdogs

Great condition

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 19, 2023

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The book is in great condition. There is almost no wear or tear anywhere on the book. The book arrived on time period And was wrapped very well and tightly.

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Mr. Scientist

Sociology, more of the same

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2006

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This is a revolutionary book. It introduces the stage metaphor into sociology; all of social interaction is a performance on a stage. It's questionable how novel this metaphor is, but this is certianly its first explicit statement. The language used to present the ideas of the author is, like most sociological writing, unecessarily complicated. There are some problems with clarity and structure; the book just doesnt have a holistic feel for me. No sociological background is presupposed, there is extensive quoting from other sociological sources, many footnotes, and various other ways to enter sociological literature throught the book. So if you are interested in reading sociology, this is probably a good place to start (again, the language is unecessicarily thick and this may be it's bane as an introduction).

However, the book is misguided. The idea of viewing social interaction as a performance on a stage is unecessary. The authors motives for saying this will make my position clearer.

(The following is a charicature of the author's argument). There is certianly a large amount of social behavior which is directed towards other people (the audience) in order for the audience to build an impression of the actor. Well, if it can happen here we can draw a parallel with other situations, infact all situations and therfore all of social interaction is like a performance on a stage, "All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isnt are hard to specify" (p 72). The performances can either be with individuals, or groups of people, and they can be performing conciously or unconciously. (end of charicature)

There are other arguments, obviously, and the statement "we can draw a parallel with other situations" is most of the content of the book, which i dont like to gloss over with a sentence. But the real question here is, is the view worthwhile? My answer: No. Social interaction is a complex phenomena that cant possibly be summed up with a signle metaphor. Yes, some social interaction is like a performance, where indivudals are intentionally making impressions on one another. Yes, some social behavior can arise from unconcious beliefs. However, most social interaction is exactly the way we see it, conciously controlled, meaningful, purposeful interaction with individuals; it is not some kind of performance with the purpose of creating a "reality".

I hope my view of the book is clear so that the biases on the final part of my review can be sorted out: the book is a waste of time. Where the author is right, the statement is little more than common sense. Where the author goes outside of common sense, he's wrong, sometimes plainly so. This book is part of the tradition in sociology of thinking that society pulls the wool over each individuals eyes, that reality is a social construct with no purpose other than social control (here the wool is the performance, and the control has to do with impressions ... but this quickly degenerates into an obscure mess of assertions). There is no real empirical support given for most of the claims. Where "evidence" is given, the evididence is so heavily intepreted that it fails to correspond to facts in the world but rather to facts about the views of the reporter. Where there is no correspondence to the world there is no truth. Various sources of sociology are cited, but this is more like intellectual bullying. Saying that some author, which also didnt have any empirical support for his claims, agrees with you is just to bully your reader into acepting your claims. The claims in the book have no practical application in the world, but only serve to intepret situations differently, and in personal opinion, less correctly. Nothing said here will lead to better predictions about social behavior or a better understanding of psychology. In short, this isnt a scientific study at all.

My final qualm with the book deserves its own paragraph, the use of language. The best example is the definitions given at the end of the introduction "A performance may be defined as all of the activity of a given participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in any way any of the other participants" (15). This is a curios definition. Me breathing while i work is a performance, it changes the percentages of O2 and CO2 in the atmosphere near my co-workers. Me staring into space is a performance, other people see me stare into space and are therefore influenced. Infact, me simply existing is a performance, since my existance causes a gravitational effect on the other participants, as well as influencing them to create beliefs about me existing. Its as if Goffman created a definition for performance which included all possible actions taken by any person, and then wrote a book about how all possible actions taken by any person fall under the category of performance. He didnt. He used a word that we associate with controlled behavior (performance) and defined it in a way no one is used to. Then he used alot of word play to show that behavior has no substance, its all for the purpose of maintaining social reality. I hope this very limited example shows the terrible use of language that is endemic to Goffman and sociology more generally.

So an ode to sociology is in order ... actually no it isnt. Why wont this subject go away? This book is an integral part of sociology, and it espouses the methods and style of sociological researchers and writers by being an archetypical work within the tradition. The methods are questionable; the style is obscure. Like it or hate it, sociology is a part of modern thought. Read the book to be an educated person and keep in mind its intellectual failings.

32 people found this helpful

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S. Pactor

The Arts of Impression Management

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 21, 2004

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I'm not a student of sociology or psychology, but I can't seem to stay away from the work of Erving Goffman. This is the third book by Goffman that I've read (others: Stigma, Asylums). In this book, Goffman elucidates a "dramaturgical" theory of self, which he claims is an additional method of explaining human action.
First caveat, I've not read any books by Talcott Parsons, or Manheim, and there were several sections in this book that were heavy enough in theory to make me give up. Despite these difficult sections, Goffman's style is breezy and interesting enough to make th is book worth reading for a layman.
Roughly, Goffman sets up a model of human interaction that takes most of its metaphors from the realm of theatrical performance. Human interaction takes place between performers and audiences, interactions happen front stage or back stage. This theatrical metaphor is joined by the idea that human actors interact in teams that share similar motives and values. He joins this "team" idea to the theatrical metaphor by emphasizing the difference between performers and audiences.
After laying out his framework, Goffman then uses examples from literature, his own research, and other researchers to illustrate his point. It is in this section that his writing can seem a bit dated. For example, he repeatedly discusses how college educated women will "play dumb" for their boy friends. I'm not saying this doesn't (still) happen, but the example could use somet updating.
One of the main insights that I took away from this excellent book is that humans largely exist as social beings through their interactions with other creatures, and the idea of a person as an "individual" is, itself, largely a construct. This largely contradicts much of the books/music I imbibed as a teen and young adult (Ayn Rand, punk rock, I'm looking at you).
It also seems to me that this "dramaturgical" perspective is a thesis that has been widely adopted by the self-help movement. Perhaps I will now explore some of that (voluminous) literature. Perhaps not.
This book is not without it's more disquieting moments. One thought this book led me to is that the important thing in life is the maintaining of whatever appearance one is required to maintaining. So long as that appearance is maintained, what lies underneath (i.e. the traditional concept of self or personality) is effectively unimportant. If we are only what are interactions with others make us, then what we think/feel on the inside and don't share with others, matters not at all.
Goffman himself explains that the dramaturgical perspective is merely another aspect of a larger attempt to explain human action in terms of human INTERaction, but for me, it has great explanatory weight.

116 people found this helpful

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R. martin

1964 this was a life-changing book for me.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 23, 2022

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Now 60 yrs after i discovered book it gave me interesting memories.

2 people found this helpful

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AP

Quality is bad... Some words completely blanked out

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2022

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The literature within the book is great of course, but the quality of the book isn't that great like the title mentions words, letters blanked out and sometimes you are left wondering what its supposed to say.

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Cosmo lang

Only buy if you're smarter than me😢

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 21, 2020

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Prompt and excellent, value on the negative side I now realise I am not smart enough to appreciate the contents in the way it deserves.

8 people found this helpful

Patrick May

Avoid this Kindle Edition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 8, 2016

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The content of the book itself is excellent and gives much food for thought. Regrettably, this Kindle edition, at a bargain price of £1.39, is riddled with typographical errors. It has obviously been produced using OCR software but unfortunately, does not appear to have been proof read. Whilst it is often possible to work out the original wording, at times, sentences are rendered nonsensical. What a pity!

16 people found this helpful

Katerina Drosou

Really good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 30, 2017

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Really helpful with my doctorate on how people change according to occasion and symbolic interactionism. I believe though it can be enjoyed by others with a more general interest.

8 people found this helpful

David Franklin

Opaque

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 30, 2022

Verified Purchase

Don't understand why this is so highly regarded. Appears to say nothing of any great import but with very abstract and opaque paragraphs. None the wiser. Also somewhat out of step with current day attitudes - borderline sexist/racist in parts.

Amazon Customer

The book is missing 32 pages from the beginning!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 3, 2017

Verified Purchase

The book appears to be in a good stay, however it has some sort of a print or book binding defect, because it starts from a page 33, mid sentence. That is quite a lot pages missing

11 people found this helpful

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