Book Description

Life as Theater is about understanding people and how the dramaturgical way of thinking helps or hinders such understanding. A volume that has deservedly attained the status of a landmark work, this was the first book to explore systematically the material and subject matter of social psychology from the dramaturgical viewpoint. It has been widely used and quoted, and has sparked ferment and debate in fields as diverse as sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, speech communication, and formal theater studies. Life as Theater is organized around five substantive issues in social psychology: Social Relationships as Drama; The Dramaturgical Self; Motivation and Drama; Organizational Dramas; and Political Dramas. This classic text was revised and updated for a second edition in 1990, and includes approximately 66 percent new materials, all featuring individual introductions that provide the dramaturgical perspective and reflect the most learned thinking and work being done within this point of view. This book's sophistication will appeal to the scholar, and its clarity and conciseness to the student. Like its predecessor, it is designed to serve as a primary text or supplementary reader in classes. This new paperback edition includes an introduction by Robert A. Stebbins that explains why, even fifteen years after its publication, Life as Theater remains the best single sourcebook on the dramaturgic perspective as applied in the social sciences. Dennis Brissett (died 1996) was professor of behavioral science at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine in Duluth, and also taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Portland State University. Charles Edgley is a professor in and head of the Department of Sociology at Oklahoma State University and has been a member of the faculty since 1972. He is coeditor of The Handbook of Thanatology and does editorial work regularly for the journal Symbolic Interaction, where he has published a portion of his research on the health and fitness movement. Robert A. Stebbins is faculty professor and professor of sociology emeritus at the University of Calgary. He is the author of many books, including Between Work and Leisure, from Transaction Publishers.