The Swiftie and The Scholar

We’re back for the second installment of the folklore love triangle! Uncle Jerry really changed his tune on these lyrics, both as a poem and as a song, while Angela notices some “teenage diction” that she’s never picked up on before. Come back next week to wrap this all up with us!

Works Cited:
Rashomon Effect
The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider
Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction – Marina Lambrou – Aff Link
Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore
The Blind Man and The Elephant
Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives
Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson – Aff Link
Spoon River Anthology – Edgar Lee Masters – Aff Link
The Flowers of Evil – Charles Baudelaire – Aff Link
Flipped (2010)
Apophasis
Hyperbole
Book of Genesis

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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Friends, it's finally here! Over the next three episodes, we are diving into our beloved Folklore Love Triangle. First up is August. Uncle Jerry begins by talking about the narrative of these three songs and how they are woven together across the album, and then we dissect the poem of August. 
These three episodes will all build on each other, and we’ll round out the discussion in week 3. 

Works Cited:
Rashomon Effect
The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider
The Blind Man and The Elephant
Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore
Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives
Dramatic Irony
Kenning
The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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We are getting angry and witchy today with mad woman from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, folklore. Uncle Jerry teaches us where the word hysteria comes from, how women have been written about for centuries, and how sometimes, we make our own monsters. 
Listen to the song with us on Patreon!

Works Cited:
The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar – Aff Link
In Medias Res: Definition and Examples To Start a Story in the Middle
Dramatic Monologue
Orion and Scorpius
The Mourning Bride – William Congreve
Summa Theologica – Thomas Aquinas
Handlyng Synne – Robert Manning of Brunne
Christian Caldwell, Woman Witchhunter
Cassandra x mad woman x I Did Something Bad

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We have a much-requested poem for you in this episode! Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Albatross from The Tortured Poets Department, but first, Uncle Jerry lets us all know how disappointed he is with us as a class lololol. Oops! Join us as we discuss relationships in the public eye, and the journey of repudiation and redemption the song takes us on.

Works Cited:
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Aubrey & Maturin – Jack O’Brian
Book of Jonah
Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis Presley
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Ode to the West Wind – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Wild nights - Wild nights! – Emily Dickinson
Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
Antigone – Sophocles
Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare
The Bad Seed – William March – Aff Link
The Bad Seed (1956)
Matthew 13
The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link
Richard Traverner
Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope – Aff Link
Doggerel
L'Albatros – Charles Baudelaire
Frame Stories

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Join us today for some lighthearted fun as we discuss Opalite from 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl. When Taylor Swift made this song a single and gave us the most perfect music video in the history of music videos, I felt like we had to cover it. 
Be on the lookout for more Opalite content on Patreon!

Works Cited:
How to Write a Dizain 
Iambs
Trochees
Pluperfect tense
Possession – A.S. Byatt – Aff Link
About Time (2013)
Brooklyn (2015)

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