Instructor: Monthie
TR 12:30 PM – 1:50 PM
From her debut as a young country starlet to her rise as a pop music icon, Taylor Swift is often jokingly referred to by fans, and occasionally the media, as “the music industry.” Her heartfelt lyrics and infectious instrumentals have created quite the fanbase and earned her critical acclaim. In gaining such fame, Taylor Swift has used her writing to explore a variety of stories and has become the subject of writing and a multitude of stories from fans, critics, and the public alike. The stories that she tells, alongside those from critics, fans, and the public, have created a complex—and rhetorically fascinating— persona.
This class will look at the rhetoric used by and surrounding Taylor Allison Swift as an artist, a brand, and a persona. Just as her Eras Tour takes us on “a journey through the musical eras of [her] career”, we’ll go on a critical theory journey to explore her music, brand, and fandom persona through gender, race, sexuality, and more. To do this, we’ll conduct lyrical analysis, discuss Swift’s performances as an artist and a celebrity, and explore a variety of different pieces of writing about the artist (including news articles, fan videos, scholarly critique, and more). Students will also conduct their own Writing Studies research, creating papers, projects, or presentations exploring the “anti-hero” through whichever topics interest them most.