Ghent University, located in Belgium, is introducing an elective course inspired by American singer and songwriter Taylor Swift as part of the curriculum for Master’s Degree in Language and Literature.
The course, which will be called ‘Literature (Taylor’s Version)’ – a reference to Taylor Swift’s re-recording of albums – is said to feature the themes, styles, and techniques of historical literary writers from the songwriting perspective of Swift’s songs.
According to Elly McCausland, an assistant professor at the university who pitched the idea of the elective, she thought of the idea after she saw the parallels between the singer’s lyrics and English literature.
The course will capitalize on these parallels and will use Swift’s work “as a springboard” to explore literary writing starting from the 14th century to Margaret Atwood’s take on William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
“What I want to do is show students that although these texts might seem inaccessible, they can be accessible if we look at them from a slightly different angle,” she said in an interview with The Guardian.
“Shakespeare, in some way, is actually addressing a lot of the same questions as Taylor Swift is today, which seems crazy. But he is,” she added.
McCausland also mentioned Swift’s writing style varying with the tool she imagined herself to be using while writing songs, which are, quill, fountain pen, and glitter gel – which differ on what type of song she is writing.
She said that Swift’s ability to switch between styles to write something personal and make it a collective experience made her the perfect writer to explore.
“I want the students to realize that the media they consume on a daily basis, whether that is music, Netflix, podcast, TikTok, or whatever, I want them to think about that in the same way that they might think about the topics they study,” she said. “Why is this so zeitgeisty? Why does it speak to so many people?”
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