The Goffman Course

The essays in this book call attention to the ideas developed in the writings of Erving Goffman. The authors relate Goffman’s ideas to the writings of philosophers and sociologists. This book consists of essays presented as lectures to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The context was a special class during which students were reading the published work of Erving Goffman and writing about what they were reading. Some Students enrolled as philosophy students and others as sociology students. Professor Hood and Professor Van De Vate often handed out printed versions to the students on the day they were presented. Dr. Hood took these printed versions to prepare the manuscript in a continuous form. The Lectures themselves were presented some years apart, since the two departments agreed to offer the course only occasionally. The essay were designed to stimulate questions about what Goffman concludes, as well his techniques of observing and analyzing social life.