Dramaturgy

Roles

The central focus of dramaturgy is on the encounter of people who utilize roles, scripts, stages, props, and costumes to influence their audience in an attempt to negotiate reality. The desire for ontological certainty as an existential aspect of the human condition fuels the process of negotiation whereby people seek to make sense of social reality. Particular understandings of social scenes become privileged or deprivileged over others as both actor and audience negotiate, assign meaning, and order reality. Goffman is clear that life itself cannot be reduced to theater. It is not simply theater, but it is like theater. The expressions, symbols, and aspects of drama illuminate the process of how realities and meanings come to be [Page 325]constructed in relationships. The metaphor of theater and its theatrical concepts are tools for analysis rather than instrumentally based truth claims about reality itself.

People partake in acting out different roles within society and organizations. The concept of the role is one of the important aspects of the dramaturgical metaphor. Role pertains to the particular image that a person wants to convey to others. A university professor seeks to convey an image that lets her students know she is knowledgeable in her subject matter, authoritative, and legitimate. To fulfill this role, she must attend specialized training that likely involves obtaining a doctorate from an accredited university. This is to instill the impression on future students, colleagues, and other audiences that she is set apart from others because of her training. Although the training does provide invaluable information, it also has a secondary purpose, which is to aid in the perception of credibility and professionalism.

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