The everyday life of the self: Reworking early Goffman

Abstract

Erving Goffman’s highly influential first book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, introduced the concept of impression management. In spite of the fact that the book has been subject to several cogent criticisms, notably by three major theorists in their own right, Gouldner, Garfinkel, and Habermas, its main thesis has shown remarkable resiliency. I try to suggest that this may be because both Goffman and his critics have their points. The critics have identified serious flaws in his theory but his work still seems compelling because he has identified phenomena that they are not able to explain. This paper seeks to resolve this impasse by accepting that Goffman is accurately describing some phenomena but then suggesting that his way of interpreting these phenomena is misleading. It is argued that the reinterpretation has the power to preserve the value of Goffman’s original insights and also meet the valid objections that have been raised against his original claims.