Taylor Swift songs are about to be compared to (other) serious literature at the University of Austin in Texas over in the States for the upcoming university year and suffice to say we are pretty jealous. We've always thought Swift was evocative of Shakespeare, like, have you heard 'Love Story'? Now come on now.
No, but seriously, Swift is a fantastic lyricist. Whether or not 'Back to December' and the entire evermore album make you quiver, it's undeniable that she is a songwriting genius, she was even awarded a doctorate recently. There's a lot that can be dissected from her work — there's poetry in her pop songs.
It doesn't shock us that the University of Austin is introducing "The Taylor Swift Songbook" as part of their literature course, wherein we presume she'll be analysed alongside other brilliant American writers like Hemmingway, Dickinson, Chaucer, and Keats.
A description on the university website describes the course as an analysis of "the songwriting of pop music icon Taylor Swift to introduce literary critical reading and research methods-basic skills for work in English literature and other humanities discipline".
"Focusing on Swift's music and the cultural contexts in which it and her career are situated, we'll consider frameworks for understanding her work, such as poetic form, style, and history among various matters and theoretical issues important to contextualisation as we practice close and in-depth reading, evaluating secondary sources, and building strong arguments."
So, what albums are on the syllabus? 'Red (Taylor's Version)', 'Lover', 'Folklore', and 'Evermore'. Most Swifties are already versed in the hidden messages within her songs, the Easter eggs cloaked in social media posts and music videos, and the poignancy of her lyrics, but now they can actually get an 'A' in it. So Gorgeous.
Would you take a 'The Taylor Swift Songbook' course? We would.
