You can find countless articles online – and a few books by now, too – listing all the literary allusions in Taylor Swift’s work, many of which I’ve also documented on this blog. Beyond suggesting that Swift is familiar with some English literary classics, though, these lists don’t really tell us much at all. When I started English Literature (Taylor’s Version) in 2023, I wanted to go deeper: to see these references as the buds on a giant tree, whose roots snake down through the strata of history and culture.
My new book, Swifterature, is the result. It will be published by the wonderful Pegasus Books on 4 November and may be the most important thing I’ve ever written. Over a collection of thirteen (of course) essays, it shows how Taylor Swift’s work might help us to reflect on both the cultures of our past but also of our present. I explore what Swift’s place on the world’s stage can tell us about everything from feminism to politics, nature to childhood, grief to masochism. At its heart is the desire to draw red threads between the old and the new, between ‘high’ culture and pop culture, and to make us into better readers: of the world, of ourselves, and of each other.
Based loosely on English Literature (Taylor’s Version), Swifterature brings together fandom, feminism, literature, history, pedagogy, and passion for both the Humanities and for popular culture. It uses Swift’s work as a jumping-off point to explore everything from our conflicted relationship with romance, to the role played by language in the climate crisis; from our timeless desire to win love’s war, to the fine literary line between victim and villain; from the evolution of the anti-hero, to the radical power of the ‘mad woman’.
If you’ve ever wanted to take my course, enjoyed my blog posts, or simply wondered what on earth Taylor Swift has to do with tenth-century poetry, this is the book for you. I would be honoured and delighted if you would pre-order it now 💕 You can do this via your local bookshop or online. You’ll find a sneak peek of the contents page below!
Swifterature 