| Abstrakt: |
The article informs that sociologist Erving Goffman's apparent cynicism is such that his work often appears to be a prime example of the con-games he sees in the public behaviours he studies, thereby stubbornly defying our attempts to place it and assess its significance. "Relations in Public" is at least a new work. Yet it begins on a predictable note, with an analysis of how people avoid bumping into one another in the street, what significance they attach to various kinds of glances, plate leavings, sound interference and so on. It then moves to an analysis of `supportive interchanges', illustrated by the rituals involved in greetings and farewells. The trouble with jesters, is that they can never be trusted to keep their place. They often turn serious, sometimes savagely so. And this is precisely what Goffman does in his final chapter on `normal appearances, surely the most momentous and revealing piece of writing in his entire work. Once again, it seems repetitive at first sight. |
