discussion-FriOct14

Discussion questions for Friday, October 14 and Monday, October 17

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 * 1) What connections can you find between Huizinga's and Caillois's concept of "play" and Goffman's concept of "performance"? Do they overlap in significant ways? Or are they unrelated or even opposed concepts?
 * 1) We saw Huizinga and Caillois arguing that "play" and "serious" aren't opposites: that players take their play quite seriously, and that the most sacred and serious aspects of our lives also involve deep play. How does Goffman similarly reconcile the seemingly opposed concepts of our authentic selves vs. the self we perform for others?
 * 1) Goffman outlines a number of conceptual tools for analyzing the ways we present ourselves in everyday life as we "perform" for those around us. Playwrights and actors have long been interested in this kind of everyday drama and in characters who perform within the performance, and play within the play. Discuss some examples from at least one of the plays we have read this semester in which we see a character themselves performing/role-playing in the way Goffman describes. How are they shown to be "presenting themselves" to others (sincerely or cynically), and in what ways do they manipulate their "front," work to maintain expressive control over their performance, and/or take on pre-existing roles?