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Taylor Swift the new Shakespeare? Why singer deserves a place in English literature
FirstpostWhen I started my podcast, Studies in Taylor Swift, in the spring of 2021, I felt that I was simultaneously helping to invent, and trying to catch up to, the academic discipline of Taylor Swift studies. Beyond English literature, other departments such as media studies, fan studies and celebrity studies have already produced a fair amount of published research on Swift’s life and career. Reuters File Photo When the medievalist Elizabeth Scala taught a class reading Swift alongside many other writers, the fact that Shakespeare was being taught next to Swift was again brought up in media coverage. This emphasis on Swift’s new proximity, and potential similarity, to the most famous English language writer makes me think that the interest in classes on Taylor Swift and literature is led not so much by an interest in Swift being taught, but in her being an “author”. A class on reading Swift’s work as literature is just another English class, because every English class requires grappling with the idea of reading anything as literature.
History of this topic
The ‘Errors Tour Book’? Fans rip Taylor Swift’s new book for blurry pics, poor design, typos, and missing pages
Live Mint
Taylor Swift in the tortured poet’s workshop
Salon
REVEALED: Harvard University's new Taylor Swift course is 'so popular' that Ivy League professor is desperately seeking MORE teaching assistants
Daily Mail
Taylor Swift and the strange power of ‘Swiftonomics’
Al Jazeera
Yet another college course on Taylor Swift makes clear: She’s more than a pop star
LA TimesDiscover Related
