A Belgian university has launched a new course tackling classic works of literature through the lens of Taylor Swift.
The course — titled Literature: Taylor's Version — will be available at Ghent University from later this year.
Swift is currently rerecording her early catalogue and releasing "Taylor's Version" reissues of old albums, with some bonus content, after a feud with an executive over the master recordings of her first six albums.
Elly McCausland told The Guardian she pitched the idea after seeing links between Swift's lyrics and the classics.
"Shakespeare, in some way, is actually addressing a lot of the same questions as Taylor Swift is today, which seems crazy. But he is.
"What I want to do is show students that although these texts might seem inaccessible, they can be accessible if we look at them from a slightly different angle," she said.
McCausland acknowledged criticism of the elective, arguing it's actually a "sign" the course is needed.
"It gets people talking about what is literature, what is the canon. Can any text be literature?" she asked.
"There will be critics who think it's sort of frivolous and silly.
"The primary focus is literature, but also I want us to think critically about Swift."
It's not the first time a university has decided to examine the pop star's work.
A number of US universities have courses looking at Swift's music — and Stanford University even has a class dedicated entirely to one song, called All Too Well (10 Week Version).
Red (Taylor's Version) included an extended recording of the original song called All Too Well (10 Minute Version).
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