Blurring the line between academia and pop culture

Faculty of Arts and Science PhD candidate Meghan Burry is introducing a unique cultural studies course to the Department of English curriculum this year focusing on the literacy legacy of music icon Taylor Swift.

The course, Taylor Swift카지노 게임 컬렉션�s Literary Legacy, will explore Swift's cultural impact by examining her songs, videos, and movies as literature.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�We are blurring the boundary that often exists between academia and pop culture. I don카지노 게임 컬렉션�t think academia has to be in this strict box all the time,카지노 게임 컬렉션� explains Burry. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I think Swift has struggled to be taken seriously and I think it is overdue for a literary course on her.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Burry says she fell in love with the literature of the 19th century, women카지노 게임 컬렉션�s writing specifically, when she came to Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s for grad school.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�My work focuses on transgressive women in the 19th century. My dissertation looks at how the fallen woman is canonically known as sexually deviant. I really see that in Taylor Swift카지노 게임 컬렉션�s career in many ways. Obviously, the ideological framework is not the same in the 21st century as the 19th century so I can카지노 게임 컬렉션�t put the term fallen women on Taylor Swift in the same way, but she has been so transgressive since her career started.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�She made her way into the music industry, found a lot of hate in the media, was depicted as this scandalous woman that dates around, writes songs about her ex-boyfriends,카지노 게임 컬렉션� Burry adds. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�There has been this fixation on her sexuality throughout her career. When I started grad school, she released the album Reputation and that was a very transitional point in my personal life and in her career. It was really a turning point for many reasons, and it was when she basically asserted what she wanted us to see.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Burry says she will be teaching canonical literature in the course and that is why she was drawn to Swift 카지노 게임 컬렉션� she alludes to canonical text in her own work.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�Her first single from Fearless, Love Story, references Romeo and Juliet. It카지노 게임 컬렉션�s not necessarily the Romeo and Juliet we know, it manipulates the narrative. This course will investigate what manipulating this narrative means. She doesn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t only do this with Shakespeare 카지노 게임 컬렉션� she does it with F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby. She does it with Charlotte Bronte카지노 게임 컬렉션�s Jane Eyre. The biggest goal with this course is getting the younger generation interested in analyzing literature. I want to broaden their horizons about what we consider literature.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Earlier this year Burry had to submit three course proposals to the department, and two were linked to her PhD research. She ranked her preferences and was thrilled they went with her first choice: Taylor Swift.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�First, Meghan Burry카지노 게임 컬렉션�s course proposal was meticulously crafted, rigorous, and relevant카지노 게임 컬렉션�like those of many of our Doctoral Teaching Fellows,카지노 게임 컬렉션� says Department Head Professor Sam McKegney. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Second, this course mobilizes the tools of literary analysis to engage the cultural moment in which its students are embedded, encouraging them to read with, against, and through contemporary art about which they are passionate. The learning opportunities are immense and resonate with many courses throughout our curriculum.카지노 게임 컬렉션�