The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the
phenomenon whereby the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better
they perform.
Before I went to
the reading of the Australian poet with Polish roots Jakob Ziguras on the 28th
of April (an event organized by the AAU and B O D Y), I read some of his work.
Most of them I have enjoyed – though some were too philosophical for my taste.
I looked forward to seeing the man behind the poems and needless to say, I had
great expectations. I expected that I would like his poetry even more after
meeting him and seeing him read – but this expectation failed.
I simply felt
that the poems deserved a better presentation. The poet himself seemed kind and
warm, but gradually I received the impression that he is distant. His persona
was absent, he seemed to be unreachable – like a Grecian urn was for Keats. A
question posed from the audience was if he could read something personal – he
smiled and said that he could, but only after the second nudge from the
audience did he do so. It was a poem about a vacation by the sea. Still, the
poet seemed impersonal, aloof in his attitude and lacked enthusiasm and perhaps
even emotion.
This I found was
a great contrast to my expectation – he failed to excite me for his work and
based on this conclusion and the fact that the Literary Theory exam is coming
up, I am definitely taking the objective approach. The creator of the verses I
choose not to connect with the creation itself as instead, I decided to read
the poems (like “Pymalion”, included in this issue) in my mind, voiceless. In
short, it was the evening of the reversed Pygmalion effect – when my
expectations were not reached. I hope the next poetry reading attended will
leave a more positive aftertaste than this one has. (Though the wine was
good.)
Anna Hupcejova
