PSU Will Be Enchanted to Meet You In New Taylor Swift Course Coming this Fall

Frankie Colao-Pineyro

She/Her

Arts and Entertainment Editor

7/23/24

Swifties will get to speak now in Plymouth’s new Taylor Swift composition course taught by Professor Penny Kittle this fall. Are you ready for it? Kittle started thinking of the course when “The Tortured Poets Department ” was announced at the 2023 Grammys. “Of course, I love poetry, all kinds of poetry, so I really started thinking about the idea that this worldwide phenomenon, which is Taylor Swift, was a real potential to attract some kids who might not love reading and writing as much as I do.” 

The course will be aiming to create creative opportunities for students who may not excel in a traditional English class. Kittle describes, “Our assignments are going to be using the content of Taylor’s work to drive our own study of reading, writing, thinking, writing well, studying passages, full essays, books, all kinds of stuff.”

The first planned assignment will be for students to splice two of Swift’s tracks together, much like she does while performing the surprise songs in the Eras tour. Students will then write an analysis of how the two songs merge into one and what that combination might represent. Another assignment will be to create a flash fiction story based on one of her songs, inspired by Swift’s storytelling throughout her music, such as in the “Folklore” love triangle.

The class will also take time to focus on discourse surrounding Swift; how people have written about her, and the controversy she can often attract, “The field is huge, everyone writes about her,” She shared. “They write about her as a problem, they write about her as a role model, they write about her as a terrific artist…I have been fascinated by how many truly excellent writers have written about her, so we’ll have a ton to think about.” 

If you have already taken your composition credit and are feeling like this could have been the class of your wildest dreams, fret not, it may be taught as an elective in following semesters.