A Belgian university is launching a literary class in which the references that American pop star Taylor Swift relied on in the lyrics of her songs, from the book “The Great Gatsby” to the books of the Bronte sisters, will be addressed.
Ellie McCausland, assistant professor at Gund University, believes that the words composed by the 33-year-old singer, in addition to her style, represent an open door for diving into the masterpieces and themes of Anglo-Saxon literature.
The English Literature School points out the possibility of refuting the lyrics of songs such as “The Man” to explore the theme of feminism, or examining the opposite character of the hero in the song “Anti-Hero”.
The idea for the classroom came to McCausland, a fan of the singer-songwriter, a few months ago while listening to “The Great War.”
“The way Swift deals with war as a metaphor for a relationship disturbed me a bit, but it made me think of Sylvia Plath’s Daddy poem, which is also disturbing to read,” she told AFP.
And she confirms that the class she is presenting is titled “Literature (Taylor’s Edition)” and is directed to master’s students, and the most important aim of it is to make literature “easier to understand,” adding, “This class is not intended to create a club for fans” of the singer.
And she continues, “The goal behind it is to make students realize that English literature is not a pile of old books that were written long ago and gathers dust on them in libraries, but rather a living matter that is constantly evolving,” until it became a source of inspiration for current pop music.
In the study program prepared by McCausland, the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s songs constitute a “gateway” to reading the works of British literary giants, such as William Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Thackery.
In Swift’s work there are quotations from writers as diverse as the English novelist Charles Dickens and the American poet Emily Dickinson, as well as similarities to the style of the British Romantic poets of the early nineteenth century.
