The Performance Of Self

A notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves. This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and cotnrol the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience. The discussions of these social techniques offered here are based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions.

Medieval courtiers defined themselves in ceremonies and rituals. Tournaments, Maying, interludes, charivaris, and masking invited the English and French nobility to assert their identities in gesture and costume as well as in speech. These events presumed that performance makes a self, in contrast to the modern belief that identity precedes social performance and, indeed, that performance falsifies the true, inner self. Susan Crane resists the longstanding convictions that medieval rituals were trivial affairs, and that personal identity remained unarticulated until a later period. Focusing on England and France during the Hundred Years War, Crane draws on wardrobe accounts, manuscript illuminations, chronicles, archaeological evidence, and literature to recover the material as well as the verbal constructions of identity. She seeks intersections between theories of practice and performance that explain how appearances and language connect when courtiers dress as wild men to interrupt a wedding feast, when knights choose crests and badges to supplement their coats of arms, and when Joan of Arc cross-dresses for the court of inquisition after her capture.

This book is the first to examine the performance of autobiographical material as a theatrical form, a research subject, and a therapeutic method. Contextualizing personal performance within psychological and theatrical paradigms, the book identifies and explores core concepts, such as the function of the director/therapist throughout the creative process, the role of the audience, and the dramaturgy involved in constructing such performances. It thus provides insights into a range of Autobiographic Therapeutic Performance forms, including Self-Revelatory and Autoethnographic Performance. Addressing issues of identity, memory, authenticity, self-reflection, self-indulgence, and embodied self-representation, the book presents, with both breadth and depth, a look at this fascinating field, gathering contributions by notable professionals around the world. Methods and approaches are illustrated with case examples that range from clients in private practice in California, through students in drama therapy training in the UK, to inmates in Lebanese prisons.

Self-regulated learning (or self-regulation) refers to the process whereby learners personally activate and sustain cognitions, affects, and behaviours that are systematically oriented toward the attainment of learning goals. This is the first volume to integrate into a single volume all aspects of the field of self-regulation of learning and performance: basic domains, applications to content areas, instructional issues, methodological issues, and individual differences. It draws on research from such diverse areas as cognitive, educational, clinical, social, and organizational psychology. Distinguishing features include: Chapter Structure – To ensure uniformity and coherence across chapters, each chapter author addresses the theoretical ideas underlying their topic, research evidence bearing on these ideas, future research directions, and implications for educational practice. International – Because research on self-regulation is increasingly global, a significant number of interntional contributors are included (see table of contents). Readable – In order to make the book accessible to students, chapters have been carefully edited for clarity, conciseness, and organizational consistency. Expertise – All chapters are written by leading researchers from around the world who are highly regarded experts on their particular topics and are active contributors to the field.

"The Art of Confession tells the history of this cultural shift and of the movement it created in American art: confessionalism. Like realism or romanticism, confessionalism began in one art form, but soon pervaded them all: poetry and comedy in the 1950s and '60s, performance art in the '70s, theater in the '80s, television in the '90s, and online video and social media in the 2000s. Everywhere confessionalism went, it stood against autobiography, the art of the closed book. Instead of just publishing, these artists performed--with, around, and against the text of their lives." --

Enhancing Organizational Performance: A toolbox for self-assessment

Growing out of a series of articles written over a 15 year period, and illustrated with over 100 photos, this volume offers a narrowed focus examination of various performing traditions that rely on the expressive power and imagination of masks. It explores the redefinition of self into "other," when the mask is worn, and examines actors and their performances in Papua New Guinea, Orissa, India, and Bali.