Sociology 2234E Lecture Notes - Spinach, Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman
Document Summary
The presentation of self in everyday life, was written by erving goffman. He discusses how individuals learn to present themselves in social situations in order to progress through life. This book is important as the primary essay for this course is based upon the material in the book. Students are required to use his terms and apply them to their own personal experience. In addition this book will be on the exam. Individuals = are like actors, and the people they interact with = are like audience members. We learn from a young age the code, the shared meanings that go along with the material culture. We as a society have shared symbols that make communication possible. One example that was used in class was a pair of rainbow earrings. These earrings may be a code symbolizing that the wearer is a lesbian. What is important about these symbols/code is that the audience has to be able to understand it.