DU Professor Explores the Bookish Brilliance Behind Taylor Swift’s Eras
Taylor Swift isn’t just pop—she’s poetry, says DU English professor Rachel Feder.
Taylor Swift is known for making literary and theatre references in her songs—from the classic Romeo and Juliet tale in “Love Story” to her nod to Aristotle in “That’s So High School.”
DU professor of English Rachel Feder is an expert on all things literary arts. She teaches courses on 18th- and 19th-century British literature with emphases on Romanticism, literary experiment, intellectual history, women writers, and the Gothic. She is the author of six books, including “Daisy,” a narrative-poetic response to “The Great Gatsby,” and “The Darcy Myth,” which explores Jane Austen’s Gothic influences.
Feder became an expert on Swift’s influences and lyrical tactics when she wrote her latest book, “Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets,” in partnership with co-author Tiffany Tatreau, a stage actress and Swift superfan (or “Swiftie”) who also happens to be Feder’s sister-in-law.
Swift famously divided her 11 studio albums into 10 distinct “eras” during her most recent tour, aptly dubbed “The Eras Tour.” Feder used that as inspiration and as a structure for the book, assigning each of Swift’s eras to a literary era before meticulously combing through every song to highlight the songwriter’s literary references and tricks.
Feder says she was surprised by the depth of the literary allusions she found across Swift’s discography—and that they provided a perfect proof of concept for “Taylor Swift by the Book.”
The DU Newsroom sat down with Feder to chat about the story behind the book.
What inspired you to start the project?
I got introduced to Taylor Swift first through my students, and then through my relationship with Tiffany, who grew up with the albums. She even has a picture of meeting Swift after a concert when she was 15. She's an OG Swiftie.
At the Grammys last year, when Swift announced her “Tortured Poets Department” album, Tiffany texted me, saying, “This is your album. This is your era,” because Romanticist tortured poets are my whole thing.
I shot off a quick email to my editor that said, “Hey, sorry to email you at night about Taylor Swift, but do we want to do ‘A Swiftie’s Guide to Tortured Poets?’” The team had all these incredible insights on how to make it capacious, like a “Swifties’ Guide to Literature” slash “Literary Guide to Taylor Swift.” Then I brought Tiffany on board, and we wrote it so fast. We had seven weeks to do the first draft, and we got through every album before “Tortured Poets” dropped in April 2024. We experienced that album in real time, writing that chapter in two weeks, which was a nerdy, bookish Swiftie’s dream.
If I’m someone who knows nothing about Taylor Swift, what can I expect from the book?
We divide the albums into literary eras, with one Swift album aligned with each era.
Her self-titled debut album “Taylor Swift” is in our Bildungsroman era, and then “Fearless” and “Speak Now” are in our fairy tale era; “Red” and “1989” are modernist; and “Reputation” is decadence. “Lover,” of course, is sentimentalist. “Folklore” and “Evermore” are our Romantic era. “Midnights” is Gothic, and then “The Tortured Poets Department” is post-modernist.
Each era has an introduction that discusses what that literary idea means and how it pertains to the album, and then we go through examples from each song. It’s designed almost like a textbook. Sometimes we're highlighting a literary allusion; sometimes we're highlighting a literary device or a poetic term and how it’s working.
At the end of each era, we also give reading recommendations for the album. For example, “If you love ‘Taylor Swift,’ you should read ‘A Sentimental Education’ by Gustave Flaubert,” etc.
Who did you write this book for?
I think you lose something when you look at a contemporary pop star in a tabloid way and not in an “author-ess” or “poetess” type of way. This book is for the Swifties who want to take a deeper dive with her lyrics and storytelling. The book is for fans who not only care which real-life relationship or experience a song is about but also want to know how it relates to Emily Bronte, right? That’s the approach.
Did you learn anything interesting about Taylor’s music during this process?
I never liked the album “Reputation” that much. But when I thought about it through the lens of Oscar Wilde and Victorian decadence—and the idea of life imitating art more than art imitates life—it went from being an album I never put on to one of my favorites.
What is your favorite Taylor Swift song and why?
I've always loved “Marjorie” on the “Evermore” album. I love how she uses recordings of her grandmother's voice on that song. It's such a cool archival moment. (Swift’s grandmother was an opera singer.) I think the idea of haunting and the Gothic is such a huge theme for Swift, but it’s such a strange, tender enactment of haunting. As a Romanticist, I also have to call out “The Albatross” on “The Tortured Poets Department,” which is a callback to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and all the Romantic literature illusions that occur across the album.
You can purchase “Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets”.
