Dramaturgy

This week’s topic is dramaturgy, which I have rather been looking forward to because I remember it from year 12 Drama! It is the second instalment of Goffman’s ‘theory’ (or collection of ideas as he prefers to put it).

Dramaturgy is all about performances, and imagining that the world is a stage whereupon you act to be perceived in the best possible light (I don’t know where ‘whereupon’ came from, it just popped into my head - hope it’s in the right context!).

Some major concepts to wrap your head around:

• Frontstage/backstage - The continuum between these two stages show that what we ‘put on’ for the outside world (frontstage) may be completely different to what we really think on the inside (backstage). For example, I tell my parents that I am always studied and getting amazing results on the frontstage, but on the backstage I am actually hooked on tumblr and my results are slowly spiralling down to nothingness.
• Teams - at the same level as you; who you go ‘backstage’ with. So the friends who got me addicted to tumblr would technically be on the same team as me, although whether that team is beneficial is debatable (I hope you guys read that :P).
• Cynical/sincere performances - Along the same lines as the frontstage/backstage dynamic, cynical performances are put on to please the audience, while sincere performances are those that you truly believe in. My ‘team’ gets to see my sincere performance through my tumblr posts, while my parents get the cynical performance.
• Role distance - Playing a role because it is what is expected of you, rather than because you want to i.e. playing the role of “diligent uni student”.