Stigma by Erving Goffman
Published 1963 · 176 pages · 69,665 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Politics & Society, Psychology
How hard is Stigma to read?
Stigma scores 37 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 38 out of 100
- Sociological terminology. Goffman coins precise terms but writes accessibly.
- Sentence structure: 38 out of 100
- Abstraction: 45 out of 100
- Abstract framework grounded in concrete case studies of stigmatized individuals.
- Information density: 50 out of 100
- Compact book packed with concepts, typologies, and illustrative examples.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Direct sociological argument organized by concept.
- Symbolic density: 22 out of 100
- Stigma itself as a metaphor for social identity management.
- Ironic distance: 22 out of 100
- Goffman's detached, clinical tone applied to emotionally charged subjects.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Analytical framework is complete; social change is left as an open question.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Five chapters building a conceptual framework. Compact and organized.
How Stigma is regarded
Stigma holds a literary regard score of 70 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.