Escaping Through Story: Taylor Swift’s folklore and the Power of Folk Narrative
In the book Taylor Swift and Philosophy, scholars argue that Taylor Swift might not be doing philosophy in the traditional sense - she’s not writing essays or lectures, but through her lyrics and storytelling she reflects on human experience. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum writes that fiction, poetry, and stories are just as powerful for thinking about life’s biggest questions as formal philosophy. In this way, Swift uses the tools of a songwriter to do what philosophers have done for centuries: make sense of emotion, memory, and meaning.
On folklore, Swift creates a world built on imagination and narrative. She escapes the noise of fame and the internet to enter a more timeless space—a space full of rivers, forests, lost lovers, and buried secrets. But instead of abandoning reality, Swift’s escape into folklore actually brings her closer to something real: the shared emotional truths found in folk tales and nature writing. As she says in “seven,” “Passed down like folk songs / Our love lasts so long.” This lyric shows how stories and emotions can outlive us, becoming a part of something bigger—like oral history or myth.
Songs like “the last great american dynasty” tell stories of real people, like Rebekah Harkness, but through a lens that connects Swift to the past. In “epiphany,” she draws parallels between her grandfather’s experiences in war and the sacrifices of medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. These connections—across generations and geographies—mirror the structure of folk tales, where stories are retold and reimagined with each telling. By writing from different characters’ perspectives, Swift joins the tradition of folk storytelling, where the narrator isn’t always the hero, but a witness to the wisdom and pain of others.
In “the lakes,” Swift longs for a life outside of fame, imagining a romantic retreat to nature, writing poems “not with the pen, but the sword.” This reflects a deep desire for escape—not out of selfishness, but out of the need to reconnect with something more human. Like the Transcendentalist poets she references, Swift sees nature as healing, and songwriting as a way to process grief, love, and hope. Though few people can actually leave society behind, folklore offers an emotional retreat, not just for Swift, but for listeners, too.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the album is unified not by one plot, but by a feeling: the wistful longing of remembering, imagining, and escaping. It mixes old and new—like a folk tale handed down through time—and invites us to see that our stories, even the ones we don’t tell out loud, are part of something bigger. In the chaos of the modern world, folklore reminds us that escape can be a return: to ourselves, to each other, and to the simple beauty of storytelling.