Sylvia Plath, Taylor Swift, & The Power Of The Witch Imagery

Brighthelm Church and Community Centre is hosting a lecture on Wednesday 26 August, titled Sylvia Plath, Taylor Swift, & The Power Of The Witch Imagery. It runs from 19:00 to 21:30, and the whole thing is built around two figures you wouldn't usually see in the same room: the American poet Sylvia Plath and the singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

The talk looks at how both of them use the figure of the witch. For a long time, the witch was a misogynistic label used for women who pushed against social expectations and gender norms. Over time, though, it's shifted into a symbol of resistance against patriarchy and a mark of female power. Plath and Swift both lean into that history, drawing on witch trials, ritual, and rebirth to reimagine the witch as something complex and powerful rather than a caricature.

They do it in different ways, too. Plath works through her poems, while Swift brings it to her lyrics and her stage performances. The lecture traces how they use those forms to navigate their own private and public struggles, and to touch on wider questions of gender, identity, and power. It's less about the two of them as individuals and more about how they've both tapped into the same old image and turned it into something new.

There's a Q&A session after the talk, so you'll have a chance to ask questions and talk it through. The lecture runs from 19:00 to 21:30 at Brighthelm Church and Community Centre, 53 North Road, BN1 1YD, and tickets are £16.