Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? The Madness and Salvation of a Showgirl

Abstract Who’s Taylor Swift, anyway? In this article, the author will discuss her two most recent albums, The Tortured Poets Department (2024) and The Life of a Showgirl (2025), through the lens of women’s musical and literary madness. This article argues that The Tortured Poets Department was, in essence, a mad scene akin to that of Lucia or Ophelia, and The Life of a Showgirl is what happens when a heroine returns to sanity—if she can be allowed to return at all.