Literary Movements x Taylor Swift

 

Our deep dive into modernism this week got me looking into other literary movements. Literary ‘movements’ lead to historical time periods, time periods lead to eras, and ‘eras’ ultimately lead to Taylor Swift (don’t all roads lead to Taylor?). So, here’s a niche crossover post dedicated to the book girlies and Taylor Swift listeners.  

Romanticism began in Europe at the end of the 18th century. It was all about emotion, individual expression, and imagination. I connected this to Taylor Swift’s Speak Now album. This album is her most narrative album (one song is literally titled “The Story of Us”). It also includes lots of magical elements, like dragons and castles mentioned in the song “Long Live”.  This is also the only entirely self-written album she has produced!

Realism came about in the late 19th century. As the name suggests, the authors of this time sought to represent reality. This era also occurred alongside many social reforms, such as the Civil War in the U.S. I chose Swift’s album Lover for this because the era began in 2016. During that time, Taylor Swift made her political views public as she voiced her support for the Democratic party. She also made a documentary titled Miss Americana and released a single titled ‘Only the Young’, encouraging young adults to vote.  

Naturalism was like an edgy realism. Authors of this time really focused on highlighting the harsher aspects of reality. They wanted to showcase grit and trauma. Taylor Swift’s album reputation is by far her darkest album. She specifically wore black during this era. The album is full with female rage as she used reputation as a way to speak to her haters at the time.