这世界,其实就是一场婚礼——戈夫曼的拟剧理论及其研究路径

The World,in Truth,Is a Wedding:Goffman's Dramaturgical Theory and Its Research Approach

欧文·戈夫曼是符号互动论的代表人物之一。通过对曼福德·库恩的结构角色论和布鲁默的过程角色论的兼容并蓄,戈夫曼在理论和方法两方面汲取各方所长,创设了影响深远的拟剧理论。最早阐释这一理论的是《日常生活中的自我呈现》,戈夫曼以个体“表演”和“剧班”共谋等丰富的戏剧学概念,描述了人们在日常生活中如何通过整饰自我形象,呈现出互动世界的正常之序;随后,在《污名》中,他则讨论了污名者和潜在污名者这两种彼此相关的另类群体,在遭贬或可能遭贬的情境下,如何通过对污名的整饰维持自我呈现的非常之道。通过对戈夫曼独特的生命史解读,能够知晓其作品更像是一部部加密版的个人传记,或者说他的社会学想象力直接来自其异常丰富的另类经历。

Erving Goffman is one of the representatives of the vast field of symbolic interactionism.By integrating the structural role theory of Manford Kuhn and the process role theory of Herbert Blumer,Goffman drew from the strengths of various sources in both theory and methodology,creating the Dramaturgical Theory,which had profound impacts later on.The earliest elaboration of this theory can be found in his book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.Goffman used rich theatrical concepts such as individual"performance"and team"collusion"to describe how people maintain the normal order of the interactive world by presenting themselves in daily life.Later,in his book Stigma,Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity,he discussed the two interrelated alternative groups of stigmatized and potentially stigmatized individuals,and how they maintain their unique way of self-presentation through the modification of stigma in situations of discredited or discreditable.By interpretating Goffman's unique life history,we can see that his works are more like encrypted versions of personal biographies,or his sociological imagination stems from his exceptionally rich and alternative experiences.