ABSTRACT
How has Kenneth Burke influenced the development of the dramaturgical perspective in sociology? What were his key contributions? To answer these questions, I realized, there were some other questions for which I would first need to find answers. The most fundamental is what is dramaturgy? Despite a history of serious engagement with the thought of both Kenneth Burke and Erving Goffman, I realized I did not have a coherent idea of dramaturgy as a perspective. I approached the work of both authors, seeking to understand something about how people create meaningful lives and, in particular, how that is accomplished when doing so requires so much struggle. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I became interested in Burke and Goffman’s work when I saw how much both of them offered in the quest for thinking about the struggle to live meaningful lives.
