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Saint Stephen I just wrote you a paean: Signifier and signified in Hey Stephen
Swift, a philosopher of language, explores the relationship between a name and what it signifies by fully exploring the meaning of 'Stephen'
Swift's Theology of Noise Music in Our Song
In Our Song, noted music theorist Taylor Swift grapples with the question “What is Music?”
Should've Said Know: Swift's Socratic Masterpiece
Swift, a Platonic philosopher, transforms a story of infidelity into a brilliant illustration of the Socratic idea that Virtue = Knowledge.
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Snow White and the Unrealistic Date: Fantasy as Falsehood in Today was a Fairytale
The Basics: Taylor Swift describes a date by proclaiming over and over again that it was a fairytale. Literary Device: Epizeuxis...
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That's When[ever]: Blurring Time after a Reconciliation
Swift and Urban's time apart is not represented using discrete moments in linear time, but as a series of oppositions blurred together.
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Light’s Out: Astrothesia of the Self in We Were Happy
In We Were Happy, Swift reflects with sadness on what it means to play the role of a setting sun in someone else's life.
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What's in a Name: Antonomasia in Mr. Perfectly Fine
Swift has clearly not forgotten Mr. Perfectly Fine yet, but she claims power for herself by replacing his name with twenty-eight sick burns.
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Goo All Over Me: Dirty Metaphors from the Vault
In the metaphors and similes in You All Over Me, Taylor Swift paints an increasingly grim series of portraits of herself after a breakup.
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Both an Entrance and an Exit: Derridean Deconstruction in The Other Side of the Door
Swift says “I might tell you that its over but if you look a little closer…” Like Derrida, she believes that language must be deconstructed.
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Meet me at Midnight: Liminal Time in Untouchable
Untouchable is the first time that the words “middle of the night” or “midnight” appear in a Taylor Swift song.
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Ode on a VHS Tape: Ekphrasis in The Best Day
Swift’s use of ekphrasis to describe a home video elevates this domestic scene to the realm of high art.
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Words Mean Nothing: The Nihilist Semiotics of You're Not Sorry
Swift, a nihilist semiologist, emphasizes how words can be emptied of meaning by saying “You’re not sorry no no no (no).”
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She says how she feels, I say nothing: Communication styles in You Belong with Me
Swift’s tour de force You Belong with Me repurposes and perfects themes that she excavated earlier in her oeuvre.
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Wisdom of the Elders: 18yo Swift recalls being Fifteen
The Basics In Fifteen, a wizened Taylor Swift addresses her fifteen-year-old self. Now eighteen, Swift has acquired the wisdom that comes...
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