Wait, what?
Calling all Swifties! Have you been criticised for ‘over-thinking’ Taylor Swift? Find yourself more interested in her persona and lyrics than your English literature classes? Notice things she’s said and done that make you think, woah, that’s deep? Have a desire to see an English student at Cambridge University attempt to defy the odds and write her finalist dissertation on Taylor Swift? Well, oh boy, this is the post for you! I’m attempting to do the impossible, over the next 10 months and birth a 7500, fully-referenced, researched and academic baby focussed on the goddess herself, Taylor Swift.
What are you looking at?
Well, since it’s July and the middle of the long vacation from my university, I haven’t got a solid working title yet. So far I think I’m leaning towards Taylor’s ‘self-authorship’, which means the way a writer/artist/etc presents themselves as a character. I think this has changed remarkably over the years, we see her presenting herself as an idealised archetype of teenage love and life, through to her mature years, to now where we see her being the one conducting interviews, publishing poems and seizing control over her, well, reputation.
How can I help?
Yay, I’m so glad you asked! Basically I’m in the research stage - which is awesome and means I can call trawling through things Taylor has said, done and sung and call it work. But I’d love it if you were to slide into my DMs, repost, reblog or enter a discussion with me if anything has taken your interest!
This won’t be the last you hear from me! I’m gonna put all my posts under the #disssickbeat (see what I did there?) and please please feel free to reach out in any way you like to get the conversation rolling! Let’s prove ‘teenage culture’ and Tumblr can be architects of real, good, academic thought and discussion!