Taking the Lead Role - dramaturgy

Here we are again and this week Dramaturgy. 

An interesting topic and similar to a few of the key points from last weeks topic. Dramaturgy is all about how we all put on a mask in a public sphere. Goffman's idea of dramaturgy looks at our interactions with others as similar to that of an actor on a stage performing for their audience. I just love this visual representation because it is an easy one to picture and understand. When we watch a production or more commonly in our society today- Movies- we get absorbed into the story and begin to relate to the characters and reflect their emotions and needs, we do not see the actors for who they really are we only focus on the character they portrait. This is the essence behind dramaturgy, we put on a mask and perform so that the people we interact with -our audience- don't see 'backstage' at the real us. 

I have two smaller examples of this 'mask' that come to mind.

The first is an observation by Comedian Carl Barron; We have all at one stage in our lives forgotten something and we turn around to get it, then decide not to and turn around again, we may then repeat this cycle multiple times, making a fool of ourselves and sort of just rotating around on the spot. When we do this in public, we tend to speak out loud that we have "forgotten something", then on changing our mind stating we "dont actually need it". There is no one nearby who has asked why we turned around and there may be no one nearby at all but we say it anyway to make ourselves look less stupid.

The second example comes from a book I have been reading about a slave/thief girl who inserts herself into the high society to plan a heist. At first she stresses believing they will see her for who she really is, but realises that they only see the fake persona (Lady Valette) who she is pretending to be and not the slave girl hiding underneath the make-up and dress. 

Everybody is an Actor

Ah my first Blog post. At first I will admit I didn't like the idea of blogging, but now that I am here there is something quite satisfying about being able to discuss my opinion on the topics at hand. 

The topic to start it all off is about the 'self' and what this actually looks like. The reading for this topic by Goffman was quite a lengthy and wordy piece to read. As I do not want this post to also become lengthy and wordy I am going to avoid referring to the text too much. What I found to be the most interesting from both the lectures and the readings is the idea that we create a new 'self' for each of the different social environments we find ourselves in.

Each of our different social environments tend to have different social expectations and norms from which we shape an ideal 'self' for that environment. This basically means that we behave in a different way depending on the social environment we are in. To make this a whole lot more understandable consider this: You are going over a fellow students house to work on your group presentation, you do not know them well, you are asked to sit on the lounge. In this circumstance you sit straight with your feet on the floor. How does this differ to how you would sit on your on lounge or a friends.
In this particular instance you have what I will call 'lounge manners' which you probably don't have in your own home, this is not because you were told how to sit by the fellow student but rather because social circumstances govern how you act (a new 'self') 

There are many other circumstances in which we create a new self, you don't have to look far in your own lives to see that you jump into different roles in different social circles just as an actor would on a stage.