Taylor Swift and Literature Queen Mary University of London

Overview

You may have seen articles, in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Teen Vogue, about seminars  on Taylor Swift that were recently offered at some American universities. These university-level classes on Swift's work and its form, context, and implications raise all kinds of questions about what should be taught, read, and studied. Is Swift's work literature, and is it worth studying in the same way that one would study Shakespeare or Dickens? In this module, we will grapple with ideas of canonicity and literary value and think about what it means to read something as literature. 

We will also analyze her songs with the help of key texts in critical theory and discuss the political, national, and historical contexts of her work. Queen Mary's London setting will encourage us to pay particular attention to the way in which the UK, and London in particular, figures in Swift's lyrics. 

Swift's songs reflect on literary history; for example, "the lakes" makes references to Romantic poets and "Love Story" revises Shakespeare. In this module, we will build an understanding of Swift as an artist who is deeply interested in the relationship between her lyrics and the literature of the past.

Key Facts

This Taylor Swift and Literature module from Queen Mary University of London aims to: 

• give students the opportunity to explore the relationships between contemporary popular culture, literature, and literary theory.

• explore with students Swift's body of work and what it means to take her work seriously as literature.

• provide students with a supportive framework in which to develop their ability to think critically about popular culture.

• introduce students to basic tools of literary study such as close reading and theoretical approaches, and encourage them to apply these tools to particular texts.