Students pursuing Master’s at Ghent University can now enrol for Taylor Swift-inspired literature course

Taylor Swift fans, aka “Swifties”, who are also pursuing a Master's degree at the University of Ghent will have the opportunity to study a course inspired by the musician and her song writing legacy in the autumn.

Outlook International Desk

Updated on: 14 August 2023 7:44 pm

Taylor Swift in Minneapolis for The Eras Tour, 2023

It is a dream come true for every “Swiftie” to attend classes where their favorite pop star is the subject of study. The dream has now been shaped into reality as the University of Ghent in Belgium has introduced a course inspired by Taylor Swift. The course goes by the name 'Literature: Taylor's Version' and is set to begin in the autumn.

Students who will begin their Master's course in the autumn will get a chance to study Taylor Swift-inspired courses. The course will be taught by Elly McCausland at Ghent University and it is like a star-studded lineup of English literature. The course features several famous English literary writers and poets including Geoffrey Chaucer, Charlotte Bront?, and William Shakespeare. However, what caught netizens' attention was the sudden add up of Geoffrey Chaucer, Charlotte Bront?, and William Shakespeare.

According to the professor, she came up with the idea of having a course inspired by Taylor after finding parallels between Swift's song lyrics and the English literature she has studied for many years. One such example of similarity is when Swift uses war and conflict as a metaphor in her song The Great War from Midnights (2022) for personal trauma in a similar way to Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy."

Another exam of the same could be when Taylor Swift addresses the issue of patriarchy and mental health in her song Mad Woman from Folklore (2020) which is similar to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Hence, students, who will be studying the course will find various similarities between Taylor's song and historic literary writers and their styles of writing.

In 2022, New York University's Clive Davis Institute introduced the first-ever course on the songwriter, making Taylor the first to enter the classroom. Later, Stanford University also offered a course which goes by the name 'The Last Great American Songwriter: Storytelling With Taylor Swift Through the Eras.' Now, Ghent university in Belgium has become the latest university to introduce a course on the critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter.