Now that the glitter has settled on The Life of a Showgirl’s release, and I’ve spent enough time on Reddit fan forums and the comments section of Instagram to feel that I’ve gained both a comprehensive overview of audience reactions and a deep, visceral need to go outside and touch some grass, I wanted to… Continue reading Is it ‘Actually Romantic’ to renounce one’s feminism?
Tag: music
Bake It Off: the ultimate Taylor Swift baking book
My Taylor Swift inspired cookbook, BAKE IT OFF, comes out on 2 October! (Yes, in perfect time for your listening parties for The Life of A Showgirl!) I am so excited to share this with you all after working so hard on it for months and testing every recipe to perfection. It's packed with glitter,… Continue reading Bake It Off: the ultimate Taylor Swift baking book
Taylor Swift: The New Romantic Poet
In this essay by high school student Anthony Daans (who kindly allowed me to give some feedback on his project), he argues for Taylor Swift as a modern Romantic poet, while also exploring some of the ways in which this persona might stand at odds with other aspects of Swift's career. Thank you so much,… Continue reading Taylor Swift: The New Romantic Poet
The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Taylor Swift
Published just in time for Taylor Swift's 35th birthday, The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Taylor Swift is a collection of thirteen essays that discuss Swift's self-fashioning, musical storytelling, and importance to pop culture in the 21st century. My own chapter, 'We won't be sleeping: insomnia and the feminist antiheroism of Taylor Swift' , explores sleeping,… Continue reading The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Taylor Swift
The Literary Taylor Swift
Several months ago, I had the honour of being asked to write a blurb quote for The Literary Taylor Swift, a new collection of academic essays out now, published by Bloomsbury Academic and edited by Betsy Winakur Tontiplaphol and Anastasia Klimchynskaya. Before I even read the book, I knew what I was going to say… Continue reading The Literary Taylor Swift
What about Wendy? Adaptation, interrogation, and turning on the light
When Swift’s speaker sings in ‘cardigan’ that the object of the song ‘tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy’, she encourages us to go back and take a closer look at a story that may have been a staple of our childhoods. The line is deeply ambiguous, and has always puzzled me. It’s unclear whether he tried to change the (happy) ending, making it so that Peter instead lost Wendy; whether he tried and failed to change the (unhappy) ending of Peter losing Wendy; whether he tried to change the (unhappy) ending, but Peter lost Wendy anyway. Is Peter losing Wendy the result of his actions, or the fate he tried to change? [Click above image to read on.]
English Literature (Taylor’s Version): Seminar 6
[By Paulien Vercruysse] In seminar 6 of English Literature (Taylor’s Version), we focused on Romanticism, nature and ecocriticism, alongside Taylor Swift’s music. No less than five songs were on the agenda for this week and not one of them was unwelcome. The songs that we put under the microscope were ‘New Romantics’, ‘Out of the Woods’, ‘The Lakes’, ‘Ivy’ and ‘Willow’. The seminar was kicked off with a discussion of the songs. We tried to uncover what they were about, what role nature plays in them, and what striking images and oppositions we stumbled upon. [Click above image for more]
Swifterature 