SYMBOLIC)INTERACTIONISM)
)
Erving Goffman: Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 – November 19, 1982) was a Canadian-
born sociologist and writer.
Considered "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century" (Fine, Manning, and Smith
2000:ix), as a subjective analyst, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic
interaction in the form of dramaturgical analysis that began with his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life. Goffman's other areas of study included social order and interaction, impression
management, total institutions, social organization of experience, and stigmas. Some of the influences on
his works include Durkheim, Freud, Mead, Radcliffe-Brown, and Simmel.
- presentation of self in everyday life (1959): The Presentation of Self in Everyday
Life is a seminal sociology book by Erving Goffman. It uses the imagery of the theatre in order to portray
the importance of human social interaction. Published in 1959, [1] it was Goffman’s first and most famous
book, for which he received the American Sociological Association’s MacIver award in 1961.
In 1998, the International Sociological Association listed this work as the tenth most important sociological
book of the 20th century.[2] The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was the first book to treat
face-to-face interaction as a subject of sociological study. Goffman treated it as a kind of report
in which he frames out the theatrical performance that applies to face-to-face interactions.[3] He
believed that when an individual comes in contact with other people, that individual will attempt
to control or guide the impression that others might make of him by changing or fixing his or her
setting, appearance and manner. At the same time, the person the individual is interacting with
is trying to form and obtain information about the individual
) /)gender)advertisements)(1976):)Gender Advertisement refers to the images
in advertising that depict stereotypical gender roles and displays. Gender displays are used
heavily in advertising in order to establish the role of one gender in relation with the other, and
some scholars argue that advertisers are obsessed with gender.[1] However, unlike sex which is
the product of biologically based male-female difference; gender is developed within humans as
a result of socialization, and normally correlates very highly with biological sex. Gender refers to
the juxtaposition between men and women or femininity and masculinity. It is this relationship
that advertisers focus on, because people define themselves by gender, and gender can be
“communicated at a glance,” making it easy for advertisers to use this theme in their work.[1]
2. The feminine touch: It is argued that in ads women are
often seen touching themselves, which is a sign that their body is
delicate.[3] Women are also depicted as barely touching an object
or caressing it, whereas men firmly grasp an object, as if to say
that they control over their life, while women are merely there.[5]
3. Function ranking: In his book "Gender Advertisements",
Erving Goffman provides us with many examples of
gender comparison in advertisements. In the comparison
of "function ranking", Goffman argues that "In our society
when a man and a woman collaborate face-to-face in an
undertaking, the man - it would seem - is likely to perform
the executive role, providing only that one can be
fashioned. This arrangement seems widely represented in
advertisements, in part, no doubt, to facilitate
interpretability at a glance" (Goffman, 32).
4. the family: “The nuclear family as a basic unit of social
organization is well adapted to the requirements of pictorial
representation. […] All of the members of almost any actual
