Abstract

Main focus of the article is on the category of "presence", defined by social practices with which the actor manages, during the interaction, his own "being there" related to corporal positioning in material domain. A distinction between two fundamental modalities of presence is outlined: posture, that is the complex of identitary features consisting in the interiorization and embodiment of institutional social order and of past experiences, displayed automatically in the subject as cognitive and pragmatic dispositions to thinking and acting; the figure is, instead, the reflexive attitude with which the subject intentionally models his identity in front of the others during the social interaction, being able to modify the postural features. Finally, an interview excerpt is proposed to apply the theoretical model for textual analysis of social presence in discourse.