Performance, Linguistic and Communicative

Abstract

Scholars tend to study two types of performance. One is performances of theater, dance, and other art forms as social interactions that are highly prominent and set apart from daily life, both of which rely on the patterned use of language. This entry surveys the other, the scholarship of linguistic and communicative performance – individual and social behavior in everyday interactions as performances where social actors create and recreate their identities with specific intents through framing and keying. Individuals as social actors put ordinary activities – from community meetings to preparing family dinners – into social, political, and historical contexts as they evaluate the event and change their representations. The situation, the setting, other participants, even the individual's age and experience affect the social actor's ability to be understood and influence others' perceptions. Analyzing social interactions as performances allows us to understand more fully the ways in which individuals invent themselves as they seek not only self‐actualization, but also immortality.