COM 170 Communication Environments

Assignment 7

Reading: Goffman, Chapter 1, pp. 58-76. 

"Misrepresentation" "Mystification," and "Reality and contrivance."

1.  Define "misrepresentation."

2.  Give an example of a case in which someone may be thought to be misrepresenting themselves, but are not really misrepresenting themselves.

3.  Define "mystification."

4.  Give an example of how you might use mystification yourself (something you could say).

5.  What profession or group do you think uses mystification the most?

6.  After reading the section on "reality and contrivance," you can see that Goffman thinks there is no such thing as a "real" you.  What do you think of this?