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performer, a player, an image, a figure, a deity or idol, a bounded set of
territories or preserves, and something which could be treated with varying
degrees of respect, considerateness, ritual license, and symbolic distance (see
Lemert and Branaman [1997], and Malone [1997] for excellent overviews). For
example, in Goffman's seminal focus on the self-presentational aspects of
everyday life (Goffman 1969), the self was conceived of as consisting of two
'basic parts': Both a performer -'a harried fabricator of impressions involved in
the ... task of staging a performance', and as a character -'a figure, typically a
fine one, whose spirit, strength, and other sterling qualities the performance was
designed to evoke' (1969,222). Similar metaphors were carried forward into On
Face-Work (Goffman 1967) where the self was further conceived of under a
'double definition': As both a 'player in a ritual game', and 'an image pieced
together from the expressive implications of the flow of events' (Goffman 1967,
31). These metaphorical representations capture what Goffman famously
referred to as the 'dual mandate' (1967) of the self - presenting and presented,
player and played entity.
Goffman took this conceptual isation of the self and placed it in the main
focus of his life's work - the social situation (see Goffman 1963). Goffman's
continuing emphasis on the social situation prescribed a consideration of selves
as essentially situated entities, that is, situationally normative, recognisable and,
of fundamental importance, of a nature which could be supported by co-present
others. From formal roles (the brain surgeon) to more informal statuses (the
party guests), selves could be regarded as operating within a range situated
contexts. Because of the potential multiplicity of situational selves, persons
were best conceived of as normatively committing particular types of selves,
participating not as total persons but ratherin terms of special capacities or
statuses ... in terms of a special self (Goffman 1967,52). In this sense, the self
was not regarded by Goffman as an atomistic individuated entity, but
intrinsically connected with both the selves of others, and the situation at large.
Thus, selves presented for situated audiences required both recognition and
ratification on the grounds in order to be successfully realised.
An added dimension to the self was posited in Goffman's work on
informal conversation (see e. g. Goffman 1974). Here, Goffman 193