ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters in the second part of this book. The part of the book is concerned with delineating the various dimensions of a critical dramaturgical analysis of contemporary social life and its points of convergence and departure from orthodox dramaturgical analysis. It shows that dramaturgy can be utilized to understand broader levels of social reality than mere face-to-face interactions and that dramaturgy defines how large-scale organizations operate. The dramaturgical model of social life maintains that society is drama and that social relations can be fruitfully understood as dramatic action. Within sociology, dramaturgy has generated a large number of interesting and important studies of face-to-face behavior and interaction, primarily through the work of Erving Goffman. The part discusses how dramaturgical analysis can be transformed in order to understand better and critique the alienative and exploitive dimensions of the dramaturgical society.
