Stigma as Drama: From Shakespeare to Sociology and Back

This article discusses the connections between William Shakespeare, the first person to use the word stigma seriously and consistently in English, and Erving Goffman and Leslie Fiedler, the first modern writers to theorize stigma. First, Shakespeare indirectly influenced Goffman’s theory and directly influenced Fiedler’s. Second, Goffman’s and Fiedler’s descriptions of stigma as a dramatic scene of social interaction illuminates how Shakespeare used dramatic expression to treat stigma as a social, rather than natural, phenomenon. Finally, Shakespeare’s treatment of stigma as a rhetorically charged attack against those who represent difference clarifies an aspect of stigma unaddressed in Goffman’s and Fiedler’s theories.