JC
So, you KNOW we love it when our favourite artists offer us a way into the texts we’re studying in class. We especially love it when that artist is TAYLOR SWIFT. And so it was impossible not to start feeling just a little bit dizzy when, in 2020, the singer surprise-released both ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’. We became even giddier when we realised how much the two records were going to help us develop our understanding of ‘The Great Gatsby’.
And although we’re not claiming that Taylor Swift set out to deliberately write some kind of sequel to Fitzgerald’s novel, it’s still true that both ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’ do work as brilliant companion pieces. Listening to them is like listening to Daisy’s own thoughts. It’s as if we’re meeting her in the future, some years beyond the still-fragmenting last pages of Fitzgerald’s novel – and, for the first time, we are able to clearly see the events of 1922, not through narrator Nick Carraway’s eyes, but through Daisy’s own.
Consider each Taylor quote in light of the questions at the top of every slide. Then consider how those same ideas are relevant to the parallel quotes from ‘The Great Gatsby’. Pretty quickly, you’ll have more to say about Fitzgerald’s texts than ever before.
Copy out the above quote and annotate it. Label any techniques you’re able to spot and the ideas about love/hopefulness. Consider the context of the ‘Roaring Twenties’.
AVOID LOOKING AT THE NEXT SLIDE UNTIL YOU’VE FINISHED THE FIRST TASK.
Once you’ve finished your annotations, have a look at our ideas on the slide below. Do they match with yours? Maybe they don’t. You’ve probably thought of lots of things that we never even considered!
Now, consider the Fitzgerald quote below. You’ll see how the questions encourage you to build on the thinking you’ve done in relation to the Taylor Swift quote.
And the second Taylor quote…
Don’t look at the next slide until you’ve annotated the above quotation.
Don’t do it.
Don’t do it.
Okay…
Now, join the dots between the two quotes below…
And your next Taylor Swift quote…
Now, join the dots between these two quotes…
And your next Taylor quote…
Now, consider the links between these two quotations…
And another thought-provoking line from Swift…
Now, think about how Fitzgerald’s thoughts on love relate to Taylor’s…
And, finally, three further pairs of quotations to examine. What do they have in common? How do Swift’s ideas serve as doorways to a new understanding of Fitzgerald’s text?
We would love to see what ideas you came up with in relation to any of the above. We will publish the best work! Send your notes here.
If you love Taylor, we have lots more Swift classes. Try this or this or this.