The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was the first book to treat face-to-face interaction as a subject of sociological study. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a 1956 sociology book by Erving Goffman, in which the author uses the imagery of the theatre in order to portray the importance of human social interaction. Presentation of Self refers to the methodical as well as the unintentional practices of presenting or displaying one's self in ways that create a particular definition of the situation.
This presentation of self may include verbal messages as well as gestures, clothing style, hair style and posture. The presentation of self is usually done front stage, while in the back stage the actor can let their guard down and act themselves. Erving Goffman is normally taken to be the theorist par excellence of this phenomenon of Presentation of Self. As the individual leaves one encounter and enters another, he sensitively adjusts his presentation of self in relation to whatever is demanded of a particular situation.
The Presentation of Self in Contemporary Social Life in David Shulman’s innovative new text demonstrates how Goffman’s ideas, first introduced in 1959, continue to inspire research into how we manage the impressions that others form about us. The Presentation of Self in Contemporary Social Life covers the popular theories of Erving Goffman, and shows modern applications of dramaturgical analysis in a wide range of social contexts.
Hyperbole over Cyberspace: Self-Presentation (Presentation of Self) and Social
Boundaries in Internet Home Pages and Discourse -
Wynn E., Katz J. E. - Information Society.
Abstract: Futurist sensationalism, journalistic attention, constructivist theory, and
appeal to technical determinism all make the genre of literature on
cyberspace cybersociology, described
as postmodern. A main theme of the
postmodernism
perspective is that Internet technology liberates the individual from the body and allows
the separate existence of multiple aspects of self. Evidence of the socially grounded nature of interaction exists
everywhere in cyberspace. Empirical evidence examples
include list discourse that illustrates the situated significance of authentic identity in
Internet professional groups, secondary research suggesting that electronic communication
is most successful as one genre in a communication repertoire, cases of home page
'Presentation of Self' mediated through socially defined links.
The Presentation of Self
in Presidential Life: Onstage and Backstage With Johnson and Nixon -
Sigelman L.
Abstract: This is a dual case study of the strategic use of presidential rhetoric, drawing
on sociological and social-psychological treatments of self-presentation and impression
management. Comparison of the 'onstage' and 'backstage' language of Lyndon Johnson and
Richard Nixon provides an opportunity to analyze presidential impression
management strategies. The secondary questions are whether the two presidents pursued different
presentation of self strategies, projecting positive but distinctive personas, or
converged toward a common presidential profile and the extent to which their distinctive
personalities came through in their private conversations.
Emotion and performance - Prison officers and the presentation of self in
prisons. Elaine M. Crawley, Keele University, UK.
This article explores how prison officers manage and perform emotion on a day-to-day
basis. Although the performance of emotion is invariably highlighted when things go
wrong in prison - perhaps particularly during prison disturbances - the emotional
life of prisons at an everyday level has received much less attention. This article focuses on how prison officers emotions are
structured and performed on a daily basis.
Members of Congress and Presentation of Self on the World Wide Web
Girish J. Gulati, Department of Political Science, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
The Internet has become an important means by which members of Congress communicate with
their constituents. Although a number of studies have examined the content and features of
congressionalWeb sites, how members of Congress present themselves on the Web has yet to be
addressed. A content analysis of the images displayed on the home pages of 100 senators
and 244 House members who served in the 107th Congress reveals two distinct presentations
of self:
an insider style and an outsider style. The results vary,
moreover, by chamber, seniority, gender, and race. Within each party, the most significant
differences were by gender, with Democratic women the presentation of self would most
likely be as outsiders and Republican women the presentation of self would most likely be
as insiders.