What kind of narrative does Taylor Swift’s “august” use instead of autobiography?

Taylor Swift’s “august” uses a fictional narrative rather than an autobiographical one. Swift created the song around an imagined character and story arc.

The narrator is a young woman recalling a brief summer relationship with James, who is already involved with Betty. The song presents the relationship from her viewpoint, while “Cardigan” and “Betty” tell related parts of the same fictional love triangle.

This approach was important to Folklore’s concept. Swift wrote or co-wrote every song on the album, but many tracks were built from imagined people, places, and events rather than direct accounts of her own life.

Listeners sometimes treat the lyrics as coded autobiography because Swift’s songs often draw attention to personal storytelling. In “august,” however, the characters and relationship belong to the fictional world Swift designed for the album.