Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born American sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century"... His best-known contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction. This took the form of dramaturgical analysis, beginning with his 1956 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Goffman's other major works include Asylums (1961), Stigma (1963), Interaction Ritual (1967), Frame Analysis (1974), and Forms of Talk (1981). His major areas of study included the sociology of everyday life, social interaction, the social construction of self, social organization (framing) of experience, and particular elements of social life such as total institutions and stigmas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erving_Goffman

• Goffman's early works consist of his graduate writings of 1949–1953.[24] His master's thesis was a survey of audience responses to a radio soap opera, Big Sister.[24] One of its most important elements was a critique of his research methodology—of experimental logic and of variable analysis.[38] Other writings from the period include Symbols of Class Status (1951) and On Cooling the Mark Out (1952).[38] His doctoral dissertation, Communication Conduct in an Island Community (1953), presented a model of communication strategies in face-to-face interaction, and focused on how everyday rituals affect public projections of self.