Major Theorists of Symbolic Interactionism

Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

Max and Anne Goffman welcomed their son Erving Goffman to the world on June 11, 1922 in Alberta, Canada. Erving Goffman spent his childhood in Canada and received his bachelor's degree in 1945 at the University of Toronto. He later received both his masters in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1953 at the University of Chicago, where he studied sociology and social anthropology. His dissertation and book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) has since been made available in at least ten languages. Goffman joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1958 and than later joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 where he was the Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and Sociology until his death.

Before becoming a professor, Goffman served as a visiting scientist for the National Institute of Mental Health, which later led to his book Asylums (1961). Among other accomplishments throughout his life, Goffman was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1977, In Medias Res, International Prize for Communicating in 1978, and served as president of the American Sociological Association in 1981-1982. Goffman died of cancer on November 19, 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a widower with one son.

Goffman was primarily an ethnographer who relied on observation and participation rather than statistical data. He is best known for his theories suggesting that routine social actions (i.e., gestures) indicate that people naturally strive to formulate identities. He referred to the individuals attempt to present themselves to others in a particular way as "impression management." Additionally, Goffman keyed the concept of "dramaturgical analysis" which uses the theatrical stage as a metaphor to explain how individuals go through their lives like actors on a stage playing out their roles for others. Goffman's work has made a major contribution to the study of social interaction and his work is considered an integral addition to the symbolic interactionist paradigm.

His Major Works:
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) (dissertation)
Asylums (1961)
Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (1961)
Behavior in Public Places (1963)
Stigma (1963)
Interaction Ritual (1967)
Strategic Interaction (1969)
Relations in Public (1971)
Frame Analysis (1974)
Gender Advertisements (1979)
Forms of Talk (1981)

The Goffman Reader edited by Charles Lemert and Ann Branaman (1997)

Information for this biography gathered from:

UOC Department of Sociology and Anthropology:Biographies of Sociologists: www.soci.canterbury.ac.nz/biograph/goffman.htm
Article for Magill's Guide to 20th Century Authors:
www.blackwood.org/Erving.htm
Web Essay on Erving Goffman: www.sanjung.com/web_essay.htm
Erving Goffman website: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html