I have been back and forth about whether to use ‘presentation’ or ‘representation’ in the thesis. I realised I had been using it interchangeably so need to establish the definitions of both and decide which one is more appropriate.
Goffman uses presentation, however the virtual self which I am speaking about is a representation. My concern is that this suggests that the representation is less legitimate, which is the opposite of what I am trying to argue.
In terms of materiality, representations are performative and Goffman’s entire essay is about the performativity and presentation of self. Therefore I will use representation and explain this thought process.