The dramaturgical society: A macro-analytic approach to dramaturgical analysis

While the writings of Erving Goffman have illuminated the dramaturgical components of face-to-face interaction, the task of developing a thoroughgoing substantive and theoretical explication of the dramaturgical society remains. This paper explores the utility of a dramaturgical analysis at the macrosocietal level. The character of a dramaturgical society is discussed in the first section. The origins of a critical dramaturgy are presented in the next section. The conditions of social organization which give birth to a dramaturgical society are set forth in the next sections, and the utility of dramaturgy for a self-directed society are weighed in the final section. This paper was prepared with the assistance of Jeanne Boland, New Zealand.