Taylor Swift subject of new USF Tampa course

TAMPA, Fla. — Are you ready for it? A new course is coming to the University of South Florida and its subject is none other than mega popstar Taylor Swift.

The course description said it aims to explore the cultural phenomenon of Swift as well as the history behind her career. Students will also be asked to interpret her lyrics as poetry and the literary context of her writing.

The professors teaching the course said they “hope that teaching Swift and the discourses around her will help students apply s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s critical for literary studies—close reading, formation and analysis of argument and critical methodologies—to their everyday lives rather than thinking about them as siloed within the classroom.”

They added that people often think art can’t be studied until it has withstood a certain test of time or been deemed as “high culture” by the right people. But they argue that since what we read in literature courses was popular in its own time, Swift’s music is also worth studying as its popularity is happening.

The course will be team-taught, with one weekly large session led by three USF professors and one weekly smaller discussion led by an individual professor. It will be taught during the Fall 2024 semester.

The full course description is below.

Calling all mad women, heartbreak princes, and tortured poets! In this course, we’ll do a close and critical study of the current cultural phenomenon that is Taylor Swift. Often praised as one of the greatest songwriters, Swift takes her artistic heritage not just from other musicians but from major literary figures: William Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Dickinson, and more. Together, we’ll explore the cultural history behind Swift’s career, and we’ll interpret her lyrics as poetry, using a range of approaches. We’ll also consider Swift as a performer and self-marketer: how does she fashion herself as a writer, musician, and cultural icon through both art and public life?

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