Week 11-2. Dramaturgy

1. Summary

Dramaturgy is a sociological perspective commonly used in micro-social explanations of social interactions in everyday life. The term was first adopted as sociology in theaters in 1956 by Erving Goffman, who developed most of the relevant terms and ideas in his book, 'Expression of His Life.' In drama sociology, it is argued that the elements of human interaction depend on time, place, and audience. In other words, for Goffman, ego is a sense of who he is, a dramatic effect from an instant scene. The dramatic view is one of several sociological paradigms separated from other sociological theories because it analyzes context rather than investigating the cause of human behavior. In the dramatic model, social interactions are analyzed in the way people live their lives like actors who act on stage. This analysis looks at the concept of status and role.

2. Interesting

With regard to performance, the seven important factors that Goffman identified were interesting.
  1. It's important to believe in one part even if someone else can't judge. The audience can only guess whether the actor is sincere or cynical.
  2. Front or 'mask' is a standardized, generalized and transferable technology that allows performers to control how the audience perceives them.
  3. The dramatic realization describes the performers that the audience wants to know. When the performer wants to emphasize something, he will continue to realize the dramatic.
  4. Idealization. Performances often present an ideal view of the situation to avoid confusion (misunderstanding) and strengthen other factors (front, dramatic realization). The audience often has an idea of what a given situation (performance) would look like, and performers would try to perform according to the idea.
  5. Maintaining control of expression refers to the need to maintain 'characteristic' Performance should be able to transmit the correct signal and sometimes misrepresent the signal that can be interrupted.
  6. False statements indicate the risk of delivering false messages. Audiences tend to think of performances as genuine or false, and performers generally do not want the audience to avoid distrust (true or false).
  7. Myth refers to concealing certain information from the audience so as not to raise the audience's interest in the user or divulge information that could harm the performer.

These are the seven elements Goffman identifies, and I found ‘number 1’ particularly interesting. It was interesting that it was important to believe in one part even if someone else could not judge, and that in the end you could only guess.

3. Discuss

Have you ever felt that you were a performer before you knew this theory?

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