.png)
LIT112: The Life of a Showgirl with Mara Eller
Class is in session!
After 16 years of teaching literature and writing, I’m bringing that same analytical energy to this controversial album. Think of this as AP Lit: Taylor Swift edition.
We’ll unpack TLOAS like a novel—tracing literary techniques, Shakespearean allusions, character arcs, and emotional architecture.
It’s like your favorite college English class, minus the assignments and grades. If you love peeling back layers of meaning and finding hidden connections (while enjoying some seriously fun music), this is for you!
LIT112: The Life of a Showgirl with Mara Eller
Trailer: Course Intro
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Class is in session!
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be walking you through a literary analysis of Taylor Swift's most recent album, The Life of a Showgirl, as if it were a novel in my literature class. We’ll unpack literary techniques and analyze each song in light of the album as a whole.
I recently retired from my day job teaching writing and literature at the high school in college level to focus on my business as an editor and book coach, but I miss the classroom. So I’m super excited to do a little teaching here on a topic that is so much fun.
Let me know what questions you have about the album or what you most hope I will talk about!
_______________________________________
It's not too late to snag the replay for Write Like Taylor Swift: a 90-minute immersive workshop to help you apply Taylor's most powerful techniques to whatever you already write.
Get all the LIT112 writing prompts in one place: www.maraeller.com/prompts.
_______________________________________
Come join the discussion!
_______________________________________
Follow my new podcast, The Soul and Science of Great Writing! You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you usually listen. Weekly episodes begin dropping in January 2026.
You can find my personal writing and writing tips on Substack.
And visit my website to learn more about my editing, book coaching, and upcoming courses.
Welcome to Lit 1 12: The Life of a Showgirl, where we treat Taylor Swift's latest album like a novel, peeling back the layers by tracing literary techniques, Shakespearean allusions, character arcs, emotional architecture, and more. Think of it as AP Lit Taylor Swift edition. I'm your host, Mara Eller, a literature and writing teacher with 16 years of experience at the high school and college level. I just retired to focus on editing and book coaching but when I started getting requests for this series on social media, I couldn't resist. Whether you're a veteran swiftie or just an AP lit nerd like me who happens to like her music, all are welcome here. Haters can stay home though. I welcome questions and well-reasoned pushback, but an open mind is a course requirement. So grab your metaphorical notebook and let's unpack this record together, chapter by chapter, song by song.
Speaker:There's nothing I love more than analyzing great literature. I don't know if this is great literature in the scheme of the world, or even the greatest album that Taylor's ever produced. But it's got some pretty interesting layers and I think they're worth exploring. I think it's a concept album, and that means that in order to understand any given song fully, you have to consider those songs in context of the whole. Just like you wouldn't look at a single chapter of a novel independently, you would look at it in context. The whole novel. So that's what I'm gonna be doing with this album.
Speaker:Now here's what I'm not going to be doing. I'm not going to be diving deep into celebrity culture or swiftie lore. I'm not really a swiftie. I loved 1989 and I really loved Folklore, super interesting lyrics on that one too. But like I haven't watched the movies. I haven't been to any shows. I don't know all of her songs, and I don't watch interviews. Unless they're on social media and they happen to catch my attention. So that's just not what I'm doing. I'm here as someone who loves to analyze literature, and I'm gonna be looking at these songs and the album as a whole in terms of what we can discover by analyzing the ways that they interact with one another and the layers that we can peel back with all the references and allusions and also the layers of musical tonality and ambiance that impacts the way that we experience those lyrics. I'm also not interested in any kind of political or ethical debate. What I'm interested in is having fun with this piece of art, engaging with it for what it is.
Speaker:So if you are an AP Lit nerd like me and you love dissecting pieces of literature or music for all the hidden depths, then I invite you to join me. I've been an English teacher for 16 years and a pretty darn good one, so I think it'll be a lot of fun. Love to have you along!
Speaker:That's it for today's class... I mean, episode. If you're loving these deep dives, make sure to follow the podcast or come join the discussion on social media. My links are in the show notes. I'd love to hear your questions, comments, and insights. Class is always about bringing you into the conversation, helping you to do your own thinking and come to your own conclusions, so I'd love to see you involved. Until next time, class dismissed!