Relatore: Professor Bruno OSIMO - Bruno Osimo, traduzioni ...

-- in performing a role the individual must see to it that the
impressions of him that are conveyed in the situation are compatible
with [the] role-appropriate personal qualities effectively imputed to
him: a judge is supposed to be deliberate and sober; a pilot, in a cockpit,
to be cool; a book-keeper to be accurate and neat doing his work. These
personal qualities, -- provide a basis of self-image for the incumbent and
a basis for the image that his role others 9 .
In terms of role theory the subjects in the present study were faced with
different situations, the professional translators were acting in their familiar
role of a ‘translator’ which, presumably, forms a part of their self-image. The
non-professional translators, in turn, were asked to act in an unfamiliar role.
As a result, there were two kinds of constraints operating within the
experimental group. For the professional translators the experimental
situation is potentially face-threatening, because it entails exposing a part of
their ‘self’ to outside observation. The non-professionals, in turn, may have
found the situation threatening because they were asked to perform a role
which was outside their competence. Instead, as adults they possessed other
roles by which they wished to be defined.
To describe actual role performances of individuals (instead of typical
roles on the basis of observing groups of people), Goffman introduces a
number of new role concepts (1961: 95ff.), of which the notions of ‘role
distance’ and ‘attachment to a role’ seem to have direct relevance to explaining
the subjects’ behaviour in the present study.
9 “Role others” refer to the other people invvolved in the situation where roles are
performed, i.e. “relevant audiences” (Goffman 1961: 85).
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