THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAYLIFE (p.1-47)

1. Summary:

The starting chapters of the text THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAYLIFE are divided into seven sections.

 

In the first section, Goffman discusses two situations in which performers believe in their performance and proposes two concepts. He refers to those who believe in their performance as sincere and those who do not believe in their performance as cyclical. The starting point of cyclical behavior may not necessarily be negative, but may also be for a well intentioned purpose. The same person will switch between cyclical and singular, and most people are at the midpoint of these two extremes.

 

In the second section, Goffman proposed a large number of professional terms, emphasizing the definition of performance, proposing the concepts of front, setting, sign equipment, personal front, appearance, Manner, and social front. The professional terms in this section are too dense. In order to facilitate memory and differentiation, I have organized them into a table. It is not difficult to find that the concepts in the second section can be divided into three parts, where the concept of front is elaborated and extended in detail.

performance	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.
setting	refer to the scenic parts of expressive equipment.   involving furniture, decor, physical lay-out, and other background items which supply the scenery and stage props for the spate of human action played out before, within, or upon it.   in exceptional circum stances that the setting, in a sense, follows along with the performers.
sign-equipment	available for hire to anyone of the right kind who can afford them.   characteristic of Western European countries, and no doubt a source of stability for them.
front	part of the individual’s performance which regularly functions in a general and fixed fashion to define the situation for those who observe the performance.  Front is the expressive equipment of a standard kind intentionally or unwittingly employed by the individual during his performance.
personal front	we most intimately identify with the performer himself and that we naturally expect will follow the performer wherever he goes.    include: insignia of office or rank; clothing; sex, age, and racial characteristics(relatively fixed); size and looks; posture; speech patterns; facial expressions(relatively mobile or transitory); bodily gestures.
appearance	those stimuli which function at the time to tell us of the performer’s social s tatuses, temporary ritual state,    whether he is engaging in formal social activity, work, or informal recreation, whether or not he is celebrating a new phase in the season cycle or in his life-cycle.
manner	stimuli which function at the time to warn us of the interaction role the performer will expect to play in the on-coming situation.
a confirming consistency between appearance and manner
social front	traditional parts: setting, appearance, and manner.   (since different routines may be presented from behind the same front) we may not find a perfect fit between the specific character of a performance and the general socialized guise in which it appears to us.   items in the social front of a particular routine are not only found in the social fronts of a whole range of routines but also that the whole range of routines in which one item of sign equipment is found will differ from the range of routines in which another item in the same social front will be found.

 

In the third section, Goffman proposed the concept of behavioral symbols. Actors need to exaggerate their work content to the audience through some dramatic actions. Goffman provided many relevant examples, which made me reflect on my actions when reading the second section. As organizing these concepts into a table took me a lot of time and effort, the result was that I was not very familiar with these concepts. However, considering that organizing knowledge points can help me review on my own and also help other students have a clearer understanding of Goffman's theory, I believe it is worth it.

 

In the fourth section, my understanding of the concept proposed by Goffman was not very thorough. Based on the examples he provided, I roughly speculate that the performance of conventional programs can be understood as a stereotype. It is worth noting that the stereotype here is not a negative description, but represents behaviors that have long appeared in society and are accepted as common sense. For example, when we see a person wearing very shabby clothes, we will think that he is a poor person; But if we see a person dressed brilliantly, we will think he is a wealthy person. Another complex example is that appreciating piano performance used to be an important part of upper class life, so when people saw a piano performance in a restaurant, they would think it was a high-end restaurant. At the same time, the middle class, out of admiration for the upper class, will also cultivate their children to learn the piano.

In the latter part of the fourth section, Goffman proposed the concept of secret consumption and divided it into six situations. But I think the first five situations all express the conflict between the performer's performance behavior and their actual thoughts, while the last situation is the conflict between the performance behavior and actual intention of the presenting institution. (Are these six types really worth to note? Can you leave me a message and tell me the answer?)

In the final part of the fourth section, Goffman pointed out that the audience believes that the character presented by the performer in front of them is the entire character of the performer. This idea can save the audience time in judging the value of the performer and also help establish a special interaction between the performer and the audience. In fact, people will play different roles in front of different people. Goffman uses the phenomenon of audience aggregation to explain how performers protect their established impressions by isolating the audience watching their performance at one time from those watching it at other times. However, this phenomenon also has its negative impact. Once the audience discovers other roles of the performer, they will feel confused or even lost.

 

In the fifth section, Goffman tells the performer the necessity to be careful in maintaining the established impression. The gap between all too human and socialized selves can lead to instability in performance behavior.

 

In the sixth section, Goffman proposes that the audience will have a subjective understanding of the actor's performance, leading to Misrepresentation. The audience is particularly concerned about the issue of "performer is authorized to give the performance in question", as it involves value judgment.

In the seventh section, Goffman tells us that maintaining a distance from the audience helps performers gain the respect of the audience, because the performer's image is a creation imagined by the audience.

The issues discussed in Section 8 are somewhat similar to those in Section 1, but Section 8 provides a more detailed discussion of the reasons for the feasibility of role-playing. Actors need to master a lot of performance experience, and most of this experience comes from observing past life. Mastering enough expression skills is the key to role-playing.

 

2. What was interesting/what did you learn:

The first part of "Self presentation in Daily Life" introduces the sociological research context of this book, mentions some of the author's classic theories, and gives us a basic understanding of the author's writing style, the scope of application, and the supporting theory of theatrical performance.

 

However, as the author pointed out, the preface is abstract and poses great difficulties for my reading as a non-native English speaker. But as a researcher, I believe we should respect the complexity and abstraction of language, because although language is written by humans, it has a significant shaping effect on humans.

 

To propose a new viewpoint, it is necessary to shape language that is suitable for that viewpoint. People who are unfamiliar with this new viewpoint may also experience confusion in understanding the descriptive language of this viewpoint. But I believe it is necessary to overcome this difficulty. The viewpoint described in consumerist language is adapted to the viewpoint of consumerism, and readers can quickly understand this viewpoint and develop a sense of identification with the person who proposed it. However, social progress requires different perspectives, so we should respect those who use innovative language to describe their own views. I came up with this idea, borrowing Goffman's theory, because I wore a mask of researcher identity.

 

In terms of current reading experience, I believe that reading this book requires a quick and rough reading to gain a comprehensive understanding of the author's viewpoint, and then making a second round of intensive reading. I think this method will help us understand Goffman's viewpoint more efficiently.

 

(PS: These ideas are related to my macro reading experience. If you wants me to add some discussion on the topic of this book, please leave a message and let me know. I will discuss it in the next blog. Thank you for your time and guidance.)

 

3. Discussion Point:

In the sixth section, although Goffman provided many examples to illustrate the definition of personality, there are still some misunderstandings in my evaluation of the value of performers. 

 

when a woman experiences an unfortunate marriage, should she leave with her lover, or should she choose to maintain this marriage in order to protect her child's mental health. It is obvious that this situation involves three roles of the same actor. In front of her husband, she is the wife, in front of her lover, she is the girlfriend, and in front of her children, she is the mother. When these three roles are contradictory and conflicting, how should the actor's performance be evaluated and directed?

 

In modern society, sociologists participate more in society as observers, but I hope I can solve social problems to promote social progress through studying sociology, rather than Predicting the End of Our Society through Theoretical Knowledge and Told every body that we can't do anything.（just joking）

WANGYIFAN