Goffman Performance Analysis

Performance is an integral aspect of human culture, and is mostly understood or analysed in one of two ways. These are either through the views of Goffman, with his symbolic interactionist interpretation of every-day performance or through those of Bauman’s interpretations of ‘formal’ performance. This essay will be analysing the One Direction boy band concert in South Africa through the perspective and views of Bauman as an example of a performance. Pubic Reflexivity and society’s ability to view itself and assess the actions, behaviours and socialised views of humanity, is encapsulated in our capacity for performance. Through human performances, like a One Direction music concert, humans can communicate creative but constrained displays of

Firstly, the agency and intentionality of both the performers and the audience who made deliberate attempts to say and represent different things. The audiences’ intentions in general were to provide support for the band in recognition of their musical and performance abilities as well as to experience and enjoy their concert. Further reasons, of which there are many, include to have fun, to make a statement, to protect their children who desperately wanted to take part, or as a result of peer pressure. The intentions of the performers however, were to express and display their art form and to create music which pleases, appeals to and was enjoyed by many. They are also doing their job, so they were using their agency as a band unit to make a lot of money through proving a service which was in demand, along with achieving other personal intentional objectives. The intentionality of both parties involved function in conjunction to create an environment which was receiving and open by the audience. It also provides a space for artistic expression for the performers, as “through the dynamic of the work itself (musical form, dance dynamic, trance-dance, rite of healing, festival, ceremony). These concerns have demanded an attention both to the compositional skills and intentions of the performer-creators and to the effects of their work, which of course frequently transcends the reduction to compositional intention.” (Kapferer, B & Hobart, 2006:22). The deliberate efforts made to appreciate and express musical abilities were the prime intentions for both parties, and in this way the intentionality of both audience and performer created artistry and a presence at the One Direction