Taylor Swift
's megaphenomenon
is not the only one.
Joaquín Sabina
, a creator of other characteristics,
It also began to be studied in
universities
in Europe.
A rose in the alleys: the literary dimension of Joaquín Sabina's songbook
It is titled the
second thesis in the world
dedicated exclusively to the work of the singer and composer, and the first to be defended at a Spanish university, official sources reported.
This work was presented at the Spanish University of Almería (UAL) and addressed, for the first time,
Sabina's songbook in its entirety.
The researcher Javier Soto Zaragoza is the author of this study, which gives academic dimension and rigor of scientific analysis to something that was already increasingly known outside the university environment, as reported by the UAL.
Joaquín Sabina.
At the Movistar Arena.
Photo: Martín Bonetto, archive
"
His lyrics are literature
and (...) he is an outstanding author in the song genre," explained Soto, who reviews Sabina's entire repertoire from different perspectives.
He analyzed her songs with literary theories and metrical, thematic and narrative analyses.
The researcher took as a starting point another thesis from the
University of Vienna
from 2017, titled
Literary aesthetics in the work of Joaquín Sabina: symbology of despair in the songbook
.
"Mine goes
beyond a thematic study
, also dealing with other aspects such as meter, narrativity, postmodernity, intertextuality or literary resources. What it aims to do is a comprehensive analysis of Sabina's songbook, although obviously it is a work that I have had taken into account and that has served as a starting point for me on several occasions," he said.
Taylor Swift's last show in Argentina, in November.
Photo: Clarín archive
"Although it can be said that there is a
sufficient volume of bibliography
on her work, most of the studies are
very recent
, and until not long ago, almost everything that had been written about Sabina was non-academic," he explained.
It is worth remembering that the American singer and poet
Bob Dylan
won the
2016 Nobel Prize in Literature
.
The Swedish academy highlighted the artist's contribution to American popular music.
"If we look back thousands of years, we discover
Homer
and
Sappho
. They wrote poetic texts made to be listened to and performed with instruments. The same thing happens with Bob Dylan. He can and should be read," the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy said then. , Sara Danius.
Taylor Swift
has long been an object of study for multiple reasons.
At the University of Texas at Austin, Professor Elizabeth Scala of the Department of English taught the 2023
Taylor Swift Songbook Course
.
Regarding the literary side of her work, the expert maintains: “Swift writes her songs in a masterful and thoughtful way.
She uses many of the
same literary devices as classic love poets
and that is how she tells a story or evokes a scene in so few words.”
With agency information
J.S.