Luiz wrote:
Hi all,
I've been exploring the possible connections between the work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman and Relevance Theory. One of Goffman's main concepts is that of "gathering", meaning any situation in which there are two or more people present.
A gathering may be focused (such as a conversation) or unfocused (people passing by on the street). What all these situations have in common is what Goffman calls "co-presence" - and here there are some striking similarities between his approach to face-to-face interaction and RT, or so it seems to me.
For instance, this is one of Goffman's definitions of "co-presence", in his book Behavior in Public Places (1963, p 17):
“Persons must sense that they are close enough to be perceived in whatever they are doing, including their experiencing of others, and close enough to be perceived in this sensing of being perceived.”
And here is another one, from his essay "The Interaction Order" (1983, p 3):
“When in each other’s presence individuals are admirably placed to share a joint focus of attention, perceive that they do so, and perceive this perceiving.”
As far as I know, this is a kind of "mutual manifestness" avant la lettre. Any thoughts? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
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What this actually reminds me of is H. Rousseau in his "Essay on the Origons of Language". This was the text of Rousseau that Derrida rescued from relative obscrurity in "Of Grammatology".
I am interested in your last remark re. "avant la lettre". For Rousseau, this "mutual manifestness" is a feature of speech that is missing in written communication, which is where Derrida goes to town.
Not that I endorse the latter's analysis, but the Goffman Rousseau connection seems quite clear in the passages you quote.
Cheers,
M.J.Murphy
The shapes of things are dumb.
-L. Wittgenstein
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