Dramas, Metaphors, and Structures^*

Abstract

It is argued that dramaturgical sociology/social psychology must be examined as a continuation of the methods and practices of dramatism. Such an examination will reveal answers to the persistent questions regarding the work of Erving Goffman: Is he using a metaphor, simile, analogy, etc.! Is he a symbolic interactionist! Is his work a form of structuralism! What is the relationship between the sociologist and the drama of human relations! What is the relationship between interactionism and structuralism! The answers to these questions, it appears, are that drama is not used as a simple analogy in the study of human relations and that the separation of structuralism and interactionism is yet another essay in the confrontation between Heraclitus' flux and Zeno's paradox. You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you. Heraclitus In which case, you cannot step even once into the river: there will in fact be no river. after Parmenides, Zeno etc.

The Free-Lance Musician as A Type of Non-Person: An Extension of the Concept of Non-Personhood

“…While the reader might be tempted to view the theater stage as only a metaphor, the authors ask that attention be focused upon the problems of ambiguous frameworks, their generation of ambiguous interpretations and actions, as well as their influence on personhood. As Perinbanayagam (1982) notes, the dramaturgical analytical model focuses upon act, communication, meaning and purpose as the fundamental elements of human existence in all walks of life. Whether inside or outside the theater, drama is a description of certain ways of doing and being.…”

The Ocean Run: Stage, Cast, and Performance in a Public Park Basketball Scene

“…Following Perinbanayagam (1982), I understand the dramatic aspect of a "scene" not as a mere theatrical metaphor for "real life" but as the outline of an ecologically bounded, narratively organized, and subjectively recognized unit of description and analysis. To see the public realm as a proliferation of scenes is to bring into focus the assembling of landscapes, people, and actions into recognizable segments of social life.…”

‘Cooling out the marks’: the ideology and politics of vocational education in an age of austerity

“…An alternative approach is to draw on a different type of model -the dramaturgical model of social interactions. This model builds on theories of symbolic interaction (Blumer 1969), and the analogy of social behaviour as a form of unscripted drama (Goffman 1959;Perinbanayagam 1974Perinbanayagam , 1982Perinbanayagam , 1985. According to the symbolic interactionist perspective of Blumer (1969), people do not simply react, they interpret, evaluate, and define, and then act in terms of their interpretations (Caron 1995;Mead 1935).…”