The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life

Life, according to Erving Goffman, is one enormous theatrical production in which everybody is performing, nobody has been given a complete script, and most of us are desperately hoping the audience doesn’t notice that we haven’t the faintest idea what we’re doing. The costumes vary, the scenery changes, and occasionally somebody forgets their lines spectacularly, but the show, regrettably, must go on.

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1990), published by Penguin, is one of the most influential works of modern sociology, and a wonderfully perceptive examination of the extraordinary lengths human beings go to in order to appear perfectly ordinary.

Originally published in 1959, Goffman’s groundbreaking study argues that social interaction resembles a theatrical performance. We carefully construct impressions, adopt different roles, manage our appearances and attempt to influence how others perceive us. The respectable professional, the devoted parent, the charming dinner guest and the cheerful shop assistant may all be performing versions of themselves designed for particular audiences.

Goffman distinguishes between our ’front stage’ behaviour, where we maintain the appropriate public image, and our ’backstage’ existence, where the performance can finally relax. A restaurant waiter may be the very embodiment of courtesy in the dining room, only to retreat into the kitchen and deliver a rather less complimentary assessment of the customers. Both performances, naturally, are entirely authentic in their own peculiar way.

Through observations of everyday encounters, Goffman explores the subtle rituals, unspoken agreements and elaborate social manoeuvres that make ordinary life possible. Why do we behave differently at work and at home? Why do people become so embarrassed when a carefully maintained image collapses? And why does someone who has just been caught doing something ridiculous so often pretend that absolutely nothing unusual has occurred?

What makes this book particularly fascinating is its ability to expose the hidden machinery of social behaviour without making its readers feel entirely comfortable about participating in it. Once you begin recognising Goffman’s ideas in action, job interviews, family gatherings, business meetings and casual conversations may never seem quite so innocent again.

There is also something deliciously ironic about a book that explains how people manufacture convincing impressions being sold through a carefully composed description intended to persuade somebody to purchase it. Goffman would undoubtedly have appreciated the performance, although he might have had a few awkward observations about the bookseller’s motives.

Condition: Good. This 1990 Penguin edition is a previously owned copy showing the ordinary signs of age and handling, while remaining ready to reveal the theatrical absurdities of everyday existence to another unsuspecting reader.

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where we present ourselves as a respectable establishment dealing in interesting second-hand literature, despite having selected a business name that rather undermines the entire performance.

An entertaining, perceptive and occasionally uncomfortable classic for anyone interested in sociology, psychology, human behaviour or discovering why everybody, including themselves, spends so much time pretending to be effortlessly normal.

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