In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman’s work helps to see social life as a series of performances, encouraging to reflect on how we present ourselves and understand the behaviours of others in social settings, presenting the idea that individuals manage the impressions they give to others much like actors on a stage.
“We have been using the term ‘performance’ to refer to all the activity of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his continuous presence before a particular set of observers and which has some influence on the observers.”
(Goffman, 1959, p. 22)
“Instead of merely doing his task and giving vent to his feelings, he will express the doing of his task and acceptably convey his feelings. In general, the representation of an activity, especially when this representation is socialized in accordance with interaction standards, will vary in some degree from the activity itself.”
(Goffman, 1959, p. 74)
