Haters gonna hate … but stars like Taylor Swift can help to make literature pop

Adding contemporary material to school curriculums won’t dumb down—it will inspire, says Elly McCausland

The esteemed Shakespeare professor Jonathan Bate recently argued that Taylor Swift was a “literary giant”, declaring that he would “compare her (favourably) to the greats of poetry and prose”. Photo: AP/Chris Pizzello

I’m delighted to hear that the English school curriculum in England is about to be shaken up by the arrival of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden into classrooms. 

This is part of wider plans to turn pupils into “educated citizens in modern society” by including contemporary material alongside the more established canon, and it’s led by Oak National Academy, the British government-backed creator of curriculum resources. A spoonful of grunge helps the western classical tradition go down, as Mary Poppins almost said.