An experimental and conceptual exploration of the utility of the dramaturgical analogy

Thesis

In Chapter One, the dramaturgical analogy, whereby theatre is compared with social life, is described and its relevance to the study of social interaction processes asserted. The analogy may be used simply as an analytic tool or as a possible representation of the phenomenology of social interaction. In this thesis the former approach is defended, but the defence itself requires acknowledgement that people may on occasion view their behaviour in terms which apparently draw on dramaturgical principles and conceptions.

The analogy assumes that people behave according to known social forms, embodied in their own and others' expectations ("scripts"), that they modify their behaviour in accordance with what they perceive in the behaviour of others (as "fellow-performers" and "audience"), and that individual differences in performance are expressed within the constraints imposed by the expectations and behaviour of others. Many proponents of the analogy have emphasised the scripted nature of much social action and have ignored the mutually contingent relationships between social performances, while misinterpreting the implications of the analogy for individual performance and "self-expression". Role Theorists' emphasis on social behaviour as "conformity" to "scripts" is rejected; "scripts" for the performance of formal Roles in social life constitute only the frameworks within which social behaviour is improvised.

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Authors: Williams, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-eyqvy4xjo
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford