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Dr Briony Hughes

@brihughespoet.bsky.social

2.1K followers 1.1K following 580 posts

Lecturer in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway; Editor @ Osmosis Press & Resurgence and Ecologist poetry feature; ask me about the RHUL Poetry MA pathway! https://linktr.ee/brihughespoet

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · May 17

I'm partnering with a range of arts, heritage, & environmental organisations to run a summer series of immersive bat walks with poetry performances. Bookings are live for my collaboration with Cambridge University Botanic Garden! 🦇@cubotanicgarden.bsky.social www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/lis...

Listening to the Night: Bat Walk and Poetry Performance - Cambridge University Botanic Garden

www.botanic.cam.ac.uk

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 6h

A great Scratch Night with readings from the poets across MA Creative Writing pathways - looks like we have a fantastic year ahead of us!

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Inviting all Victorianist colleagues to take a peek at the music video - what might I have missed? 🧡 m.youtube.com/watch?v=ko70...

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

To be honest I’m delighted to see the random Victorian art and culture facts living rent free in my head being put to use

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Absolutely! She moves back and forth between lofty and playful references - all held with equal significance by her audience. I think a lot of the criticism has come from the belief that there isn’t space for to do both - even though it’s a hallmark of her career

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Most likely! Though I wonder if she would have chosen to feature her own hair if this was the ambition

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

My advice: don’t fall into the trap of ‘reactionary misogyny’ (Maggie Nelson). Is this really the same artist that gave us Folklore and Evermore? My answer is yes!

Article title:
Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl review: Penis metaphors and poor little rich girl tales start to chafe
Is this really the same artist that gave us Folklore and Evermore?

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Lyrics that have received backlash for being ‘cringe’ and ‘sloppy’ follow this intricate lyrical methodology (IYKYK)

Tweet: swifties anytime ariana sings about sex and doesn't write it like "he stuck his long wood into my redwood forest and let his sap ferment my roots"

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

This is only the starting point of a growing ecosystem of intertextual references that are woven into the album. I think it is exciting to see Swift is bridging a gap between uplifted literary culture and the intertextual intricacies of social media and the digital age.

I think I may have girl bossed too close to the sun tik tok screenshot

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Not to mention the appearance of a red bird at the start of Swift’s video akin to the symbolic red dove Rossetti’s ‘Beata Beatrix’, notably painted after Siddal’s death.

Screenshot from the fate of Ophelia music video - a red bird has landed on her hand

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

‘The Fate of Ophelia’ lyrics align with the myth of Elizabeth Siddal’s own biography. When Siddal died of an overdose at 32, Rossetti buried a manuscript of poems in her coffin. He infamously exhumed the grave 7 years later to retrieve them.

Now I can see it all (see it all)
Late one night
You dug me out of my grave and Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia
Keep it one hundred

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

‘In an Artist’s Studio’ by Christina Rossetti (Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sister) evidences the objectification of Siddal - ‘He feeds upon her face by day and night’. Not to mention the reference to opal!

One face looks out from all his canvases, One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those
screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress, A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens, A saint, an angel — every canvas means The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night, And she with true kind eyes looks back on
him,
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

As the music video moves between different variations of ‘showgirl’ aesthetics through the last two centuries, I turned my attention back to Siddal. Through each painting, Siddal’s face was claimed and commodified. Comparisons can be made with Swift’s own Showgirl experience.

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

The narrative description of the water, sailors, and storms aligns with Swift’s boat scene, whilst (perhaps I’m going too far here), the cracked mirror might explain the prevalence of cracked versions of the album art across streaming platforms.

Screenshot from music streaming. Glittery cracks across album

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

The poem is widely recognised as a commentary on the isolation of the artist - it’s unsurprising that the story sparked Swift’s interest. Breaking the curse, the protagonist’s mirror cracks, she flees her tower, and eventually meets the same fate as Ophelia.

She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces thro' the room, She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume, She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

As when to sailors while they roam, By creeks and outfalls far from home, Rising and dropping with the foam, From dying swans wild warblings come, Blown shoreward; so to Camelot
Still as the boathead wound along The willowy hills and fields among, They heard her chanting her deathsong,
The Lady of Shalott.

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

‘The Lady of Shalott’ responds to Alfred Tennyson’s (1832) poem of the same name, which in turn reimagines characters from Arthurian legend. The protagonist lives in a solitary ‘tower’, cursed to view the outside world though a mirror, weaving a tapestry of the reflection.

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

I turned my attention toward two Pre-Raphaelite paintings by John William Waterhouse - ‘Miranda - the Tempest’ and ‘The Lady of Shalott’. Despite Swift’s keen interest in Shakespeare, the latter painting took me on a more interesting adventure.

Woman in painting sat on rock looking out to stormy sea

Woman in painting sat on boat with red flowing hair

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

This felt intentional - was Swift trying to draw our attention the oceanic scene? It felt familiar. And (perhaps more compellingly) Swift’s social media posts, teasers, or lyric videos did not showcase this particular section of the music video.

Screenshot of swifts YouTube channel lyric videos

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Swift exchanged Siddal’s famous hair, choosing instead to pose as a blonde Ophelia. I initially brushed off this detail, however later in the music video Taylor reappears in a long red wig, uncannily embodying Siddal, before collapsing off a boat and into waves.

Another still from video - swift with red long hair

Swift with red hair falling off stage boat into stage sea

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

In the opening of the ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ music video, Swift meticulously reconstructs the ‘Ophelia’ painting, pairing layered stage backdrops and precise camera work to offer the illusion that Swift is suspended on a canvas. But I couldn’t help but notice a glaring omission…

Fate of Ophelia swift laying in white dress in pond akin to the Ophelia painting

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Elizabeth Siddal has been described by the BBC as ‘Art’s Greatest Supermodel’. Her striking facial features and iconic red hair appear across Pre-Raphaelite paintings, including works by her husband Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Siddal herself was also an artist and poet.

Siddal painted by Rossetti - green gown and bright red hair

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Victorianists saw Swift’s choice to float in the bath as an allusion to Millais’ process - model Elizabeth Siddal posed as Ophelia, laying in bath water, over a period of several months. Swifties identified the Eras Tour piano florals as an ‘Easter Egg’. But this is old news…

Swift playing eras tour piano which is covered in flowers

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

When Swift revealed the album art and track list for ‘The Life of a Showgirl’, she immediately turned our attention toward Pre-Raphaelite art. Track 1: ‘The Fate of Ophelia’, alongside the album cover, sparked immediate comparisons to John Everett Millais’ (1851) ‘Ophelia’

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 2d

Intellectual profundity, intertextual craft, and Elizabeth Siddal: here’s why I’ve enjoyed taking @taylorswift13’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ seriously. A thread by a university lecturer 🎓

Article reads: Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl, is a more enjoyable listen if you don't take Taylor Swift - the artist, the persona, the person — so seriously.
That task, however, is difficult for two reasons: first, many folklore-era fans have leaned in way too hard to the idea of Swift as an Intellectual Poet Genius whose big words signify profundity.
Second, Swift herself has imposed an intense amount of pressure on making a perfect, concise pop album in Showgirl.

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 4d

What did I recommend to my students yesterday?

Field Notes by Anna Selby and Brightwork by Suzannah V Evans

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 6d

So excited to see Speculative Frequencies featured in the Autumn Issue of Poetry News! Thank you to @poetrysociety.org.uk 🦇🦇🦇

Photograph of Two copies of poetry news stacked on top of one another. The top copy has a picture of speculative frequencies, an image of Briony performing, and a bat detector featured

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