The course – The Taylor Swift Songbook – will fill a void in composition at the University of Texas at Austin (UTA) starting this fall. It means that the pop superstar’s songs will be ‘read’ alongside other UK and US literary giants such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Keats and other artists that students will hope to know very well by the end of their studies. The course will use “the songwriting of pop music icon Taylor Swift to introduce literary critical reading and research methods — essential skills for work in English literature and other humanities,” according to a description on the UTA website. “Focusing on Swift’s music and the cultural contexts in which she and her career exist, we will examine contexts for understanding her work, such as poetic form, style, and history among various themes and theoretical issues important to her contextual integration as we practice closely. and in-depth reading, evaluating secondary sources and building strong arguments,” he adds. For those who feel ready for it, preliminary texts include the albums Red (Swift’s Version), Lover, Folklore and Evermore. UTA follows in the footsteps of New York University (NYU), which previously helped fans fulfill their wildest dreams by offering a lesson on Swift as a music entrepreneur and the various pop and country songwriters who helped shape her her job. The singer enhanced her reputation by receiving an honorary doctorate of fine arts from NYU earlier this year. The new course also comes after a separate university in Texas announced it will offer a course based on Harry Styles’ work from 2023. Subscribe to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet, and European Pop Culture will be available at the Texas State University Honors College starting next spring. It will focus on the pop star’s work in music and film to “understand the cultural and political evolution of contemporary celebrity.”
