ABSTRACT
Erving Goffman was born in Canada in 1922 and died, aged 60, in 1982. He was awarded his BA at the University of Toronto in 1945 and his MA and PhD at the University of Chicago in 1949 and 1953 respectively. He then spent short periods working at various universities before ending up at the University of Pennsylvania as a professor of anthropology and sociology (1968–82). He is particularly well known for his work on face-to-face interactions (e.g. Encounters (1972) and Interaction Ritual (1967)), on dramaturgy, i.e. the use of theatrical metaphors in the analysis of interaction between people in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1990a), and on total institutions/client culture and stigma in Asylums (1974a) and Stigma (1990b). Introduction to Goffman: Lemert and Branaman (2001) The Goffman Reader , which gives a thorough introduction to Goffman’s work while it also contains a collection of key texts from his writings. Burns (1992) Erving Goffman and Smith (2006) Erving Goffman (Key Sociologists) are two good introductions to Erving Goffman’s authorship and to the key concepts in his writing.
