A professor in Belgium has started a special class that connects Taylor Swift’s songs with famous old books. Taylor Swift’s songs have references to books like “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Great Gatsby”.
The teacher, Elly McCausland, says Swift’s songs can help us learn about important themes in old English books. For example, we can learn about feminism from the song “The Man” and about a type of character called an “anti-hero” from the song “Anti-Hero”. McCausland thinks this class can show that books are interesting and not boring.
She wants people to know that English literature is not just about old books. It’s a living thing that changes and grows. She also says we can learn from other artists like Beyonce and even things like TikTok. In the class, students use Taylor Swift’s songs to start reading old books by authors like Shakespeare and Bronte.
Taylor Swift talks about other writers in her songs too, like Charles Dickens and Emily Dickinson. McCausland also notices that Swift’s writing is similar to writers from a long time ago.
Even though some people online don’t like this idea and question if it’s good for education, McCausland says it’s like when Bob Dylan won a big prize for his songs. Some people didn’t like it then, but now they understand.
Taylor Swift has been very successful. She started in 2006 and is now on a big tour called the Eras Tour. She’s doing well, even compared to Beyonce. Taylor Swift is the first woman to have four albums on the Top 10 list at the same time. She’s going to many places on her tour and releasing an old album again in October.
McCausland’s class is one of the first in Europe to use Taylor Swift’s songs this way. In the US, there was a similar class last year at New York University. In London, a summer school looked at Taylor Swift’s work in a similar way.
