(no subject)
May. 6th, 2013 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elle_white For the last week or so, I’ve reverted to a depressed state. It is over uni stuff. I put a lot of work into an essay about the conventions of fantasy. I talked about how the conventions of fantasy were embodied in the texts I chose, and the social implications of those conventions. However, my teacher dismissed my arguments, and denied their were any social implications in fantasy, even I’d arduously tried to argue that there were. The teacher disregarded it, making many vague refutations. She quoted an academic, whose name I don’t recall, who claimed that “because magic exists, you can have a chosen one.” I found that such an obtuse commentary on the genre. The teacher’s agreed to have someone else look at it, and I’m grateful for that. But to have tons of research and a carefully built up argument dismissed with a quote … really hurts.
I’m feeling terrible. I’ve even been physically ill over this. I have a cold because my immune system is shot from stress. This has triggered my depression and anxiety. My confidence is extremely low right now. I just feel kind of hopeless right now.
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on 2013-05-06 06:45 am (UTC)Quite frankly, I don't care if she's your professor or how many degrees she may hold. It was completely unnecessary of her to disregard your hard work and dismiss your point just because she held a different opinion than you. One quote from some academic alone doesn't mean anything if you've completely taken it out of context to serve your point. If that ultimately affected your grade on your paper, then she's the one who's in the wrong for it. She should've at least tried to see where you were coming from, or try to avoid hurting your feelings.
(Besides, I have to say I agree with you, even without reading your paper, and your professor's stance makes no sense. Since when does any narrative or genre lack any social commentary? Seriously. Give me one book, television show, or video game that doesn't reflect society in the time it was released. Magic or not, a fantasy author picks and chooses its elements, characters, plot, theme, etc., for a reason. It's completely possible for the entire genre to have social implications tied to certain conventions.)
If I were you, I would approach her privately and express your concerns to her, unless you're afraid she's not going to take you seriously. Who knows? Maybe she just an off day, and professors are people, too; even they could make mistakes. I'm sure she's a reasonable person, and if you explain to her how you felt dismissed, she may look your paper over again. If not, well, you tried.
*Hugs* I really hope you feel better. I've been there with uni crap, trust me. College is stressful enough without getting an attitude like that coming from a teacher, of all people. If it helps any, it sounds like your paper was really awesome.
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on 2013-05-06 07:16 am (UTC)I did send her an email telling her I felt dismissed, and I addressed the points that were and contradictory. She said secondary or created worlds were not a convention of fantasy. And she referred me onto a book to prove her point. But later, when she listed what she believed to be fantasy conventions, she said European inspired world set in the past were one of them. She flat out said she disagreed their was any social content in fantasy, but also said that wasn't important. Considering her contradictory and dismissive responses, I frankly find that extremely hard to believe. She also only talked about one text I explored in my essay. I wrote about three, and she only ever talked about the one she read as a teenager. She may not have read the others, so she might not know as much as about them. However, she didn't even talk about how I built my argument through those texts.
I did thoroughly go through her comments and addressed them in my email. She sent me a response, and didn't specifically address any of my points. However, she did agree to send it on to someone else. I should be over it by now. But the way she dismissed all my work, and acted really condescending about it, was pretty devastating.
I know this sounds arrogant, but I have a degree too. I have a BA. And while she has more qualifications than me, I still think I have some idea of what I'm talking about.
no subject
on 2013-05-06 08:35 am (UTC)I'm still sorry to hear she isn't addressing anything you've got to say, but I'm glad to hear she's agreed to pass your work to someone else. At the very least, you deserve somebody to comb through your paper with a neutral, critical eye rather than just shooting down your argument entirely because they may disagree with you. The point of writing an essay isn't to make everyone agree with you. The point of an essay is to support your stance on something and explain yourself and why you feel that way, source your shit and the texts you use to support your argument, and relate all of your points to each other. Yes, there's room to agree or disagree, and an educator is more than welcome to bring up a point and see how you respond to it, but ultimately that's what point of essay writing, more or less.
Hopefully you'll get better feedback from somebody else? I empathize with how a dismissal would affect you so badly. It's not just a matter of opinion. When it's your own writing, and somebody doesn't even want to really look over what you've written after working on it... it can definitely be a punch in the gut. :\
Apologies for the constant edits, by the way! It's late where I am, and I keep making typos or forgetting to add something.
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on 2013-05-06 09:54 am (UTC)Yeah, that's the purpose of an essay. Initially, when my teacher said she didn't agree there was social context, she also told me I hadn't argued there was one. She didn't explain how I had failed to argue that. All she did was mention that quote in my post. I had tried to carefully and logically build up an argument about a genre based on my main texts and secondary references. I wouldn't mind constructive criticism. In fact, I'd like it. I could improve that way. But she didn't provide that. "Because there is magic, you can have a chosen one" tells me absolutely nothing. I put a lot of work into arguing that fantasy was more than just escapism, but she obviously ignored that. I pointed out in my email that her comments seemed vague and didn't actually explain anything. But as I said, she didn't specifically address any of my points. She never explained what she thought was wrong with argument, exactly.
She spent little time talking about the build up of my argument over three texts, and focused most of her time on one, and her opinion on it. This was a text that she admitted had a big influence on her. As I said, I find it extremely hard to believe her when she said it didn't matter that she disagreed with me.
no subject
on 2013-05-07 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2013-05-08 12:09 am (UTC)I thoroughly went through her points in an email, and said they didn't actually address how I built my argument. I asked for clarification, but she didn't address anything specifically, just said she would pass it on to someone else.It really seems like because she didn't agree with my argument, she just dismissed. Well, hopefully the next person won't just dismiss my work?