Maria Shreve
English 5870
Dr. DeVries
24 March 2009

This particular reading, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman, didn’t sink in as well as some of the other readings we’re been assigned. However, one aspect I did appreciate and could relate to was Goffman’s analogy that our world is essentially the theater and that we, as individuals, have roles in the theatre and are performers. This is reminiscent of a thought that I had when I was still in my credential program about 10 years ago. I was writing my cover letter, and, at the time I said that the most important part of teaching was connecting to students, for without that, you would just be performing a “teacher act” rather than being a true teacher. However, after reading this and other articles, I now see that we are in a sense performers.
We’ve discussed in class that in ethnographic research it’s helpful to be part of a culture to get to know our subjects. Goffman suggests a tight circle during which time we maintain a certain look. He states: “…the participant observer may not only wear an accepting look while listening to an informant, but may also be careful to wear the same look when observing the information talking to others; observers of the observer will then not as easily discover where he actually stands.” Why does this sound so covert? With his recommendations, this would make the observations more difficult for the Shetlander he referred to. He described a group of islanders who enjoyed watching people approach their houses unseen, and then upon entering a visible area, immediately put on a social face. I certainly don’t think this is limited to island behavior, and it reminded me of an incident I observed years ago. A realtor was coming to our house for a consultation. I looked out the window, could see that he was walking with his face down, that he looked exhausted, but as soon as he rang the doorbell he put on the face of the happy, perky, can-do salesman. In still more explanation that reminds me of covert antics, Goffman refers to our own self control sets as “the symmetry of the communication process” as “the stage for an information game – a potentially infinite cycle of concealment, discovery, false revelation, and rediscovery.” He notes that this description casts a dubious light on communication, although he notes that the witness is likely to have the advantage over the actor (9).
I also found his example of the Shetlander who is observing the unobserved observer and odd. It was at about this point that I made the connection to Goffman and ethnographic research, and it was at this point that I came up with an idea for a way to approach leading the discussion for our class. Rather than devoting a large chunk of time to discussing this article, we can spend less time discussing it, and we can do role-playing in a similar manner to the arrangement of the Shetlander. We will divide into two groups and in each group there will be a teacher (A), two students (B-1 and B-2), an observer (C). The observer will be taking notes in the way that we are supposed to be taking notes, and while she is doing this, Dr. DeVries will be the “Shetlander,” observing the observer, or in this case the “observers.” Because there will be two groups, Dr. DeVries will have to be an especially adept observer.