This guide is intended to assist students writing papers about literary works or authors. It suggests both print and Internet resources available, but it is by no means a comprehensive list of all materials available either in the Library or on the web but is a representative sample.
A good first place to look for Literary Criticism Resources is the Online Catalog. Use it to search for books about the author or by the author you are researching. To search for books about the author, use a Subject search, and type in the author's name, last name first (e.g. Hemingway, Ernest). To find books by the author, do an Author search, and again, type in the author's name, last name first (e.g. Dickens, Charles).
Electronic databases are used to locate journal, magazine, or newspaper articles on a particular topic. Some databases are designated as full-text, which means that the whole text of the article is available in that database. You can print, save, or email that article. When using a database or any other tool in the Library, always write down the full citation to an article (author, article title, journal title, volume, issue, date, and pages) so you will have this information for your bibliography. If the article is not available with full-text, try Journal Finder to see if articles from that journal are available in another database or in print in the Library.
MLA
Bibliography
The
MLA Bibliography (Modern Language Association Bibliography) is an
excellent resource for locating literary criticism on either a specific author
or title. It indexes journals and books, world-wide, and covers English
language and foreign language authors and titles. The dates of coverage
are 1963 to the present. Nearly 4,000 journals are indexed by the MLA
Bibliography. Use the MLA Bibliography with the Online Catalog and Journal Finder to find references to items which the Davis Memorial Library
owns. Also, there are references to linked full-text in another database
(Academic Search Premier).
Literature Resource Center
Literature Resource Center contains online versions of many of the Gale Literary Criticism series. In addition, it also includes biographical information, full-text of many poems and short stories, and full-text journal articles (many are peer-reviewed). Users can search by keyword, author, or work. Use the tabs at the top of a results page to navigate between different types of results including literature criticism, biographies, topic and work overviews, reviews and news, primary sources and literary works, and multimedia.
Project
MUSE
Project
MUSE is a full-text journal article search tool. This resource may be
used one of two ways. If you already know the journal, issue, and pages
you need, click on the “Journals” link and navigate to the needed
article. If you are looking for a topic, use the “Search” link
to get to a search box. The most relevant articles will be at the top of
the list.
Critical Companions to
Popular Contemporary Authors
Published by Greenwood Publishing Group,
this resource is a full-text collection of sourcebooks on forty-six authors.
Authors available include Maya Angelou, Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Hong Kingston,
Terry McMillan, Toni Morrison, Amy Tan, and Kurt Vonnegut.
Literature in
Context
Literature
in Context provides full-text access to twenty sourcebooks published by
Greenwood Publishing Group. These sourcebooks provide information on
often-studied literary works. Some of the titles included are The Great
Gatsby, Hamlet, Pride & Prejudice, The Scarlet
Letter, and Things Fall Apart.
Criticism Anthologies
The following three sources contain generous excerpts from critical writing on authors, both contemporary to the author and more recent criticisms. Use the index at the end of each set to find discussions of a particular novel, play, poem, etc. in all volumes and series. Searching under the author's name will provide general criticism on the author's works. These volumes are located on the low wooden shelving in the Reference Area.
| Title | Location |
| Contemporary Literary Criticism | R 809.04 C761 |
| Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism | R 809.04 G151t |
| Twentieth Century Literary Criticism | R 809.034 N714 |
| Short Story Criticism | R 809.3 S559 |
Other Critical Resources
In addition to the major sets of criticism, the following resources represent some of the titles available in the Reference collection where you can find additional criticism.
| Title | Location |
| African-American Writers | R 810.9 A 258 |
| African-American Dramatists | R 812.009 A258 |
| American Writers | R 810.9 A512 |
| British Writers | R 820.9 B862 |
| Columbia Companion to the Twentieth Century American Short Story | R 813.0109 C726 |
| Companion to Southern Literature | R 810.9975 C737 |
| A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American South | R 810.9975 C737g |
| Contemporary Ethnic Poets | R 811.5409 C761 |
| Critical Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory | R 803 W861c |
| Critical Survey of Poetry, English Language Series | R 809.1 C 934 |
| Critical Survey of Short Fiction | R 809.31 C934 |
| A Dictionary of Writers and Their Works | R 809.003 C877d |
| Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature | R 809.89287 W623e |
| Encyclopedia of Literary Modernism | R 809.9112 E56 |
| European Writers | R 809.89 E89 |
| Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story | R 813.0103 F147 |
| HarperCollins Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature | R 810.9003 H295 |
| Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism | R 801.95 J65 |
| Multicultural Authors Since 1945 | R 809.045 M961 |
| Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States | R 810.99287 |
| Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature | R 810.3 O98 v. 1-4 |
| World Poets | R 809.1003 W927 v.1-3 |
Bibliographic Anthologies
The following are biographical anthologies that are useful in locating background information about an author. These tools will assist you in locating materials about the author's life. Use the index at the end of the set to find various biographical entries about the author. The index for Contemporary Literary Criticism also cross-references Contemporary Authors.
| Title | Location |
| Contemporary Authors | R 928 C761 vol. 1- 243 |
| Dictionary of Literary Biography | R 820.9 B885e |
| Something About the Author | R 809.8 S696 vol. 1- 166 |
General Literary Criticism Resources
The IPL Online Literary Criticism
Collection
"The IPL
Online Literary Criticism Collection contains critical and biographical
websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title,
or by nationality and literary period." This site, from the Internet Public
Library at the University of Michigan, while not searchable, allows users to
browse easily to locate an author of interest and items about that author.
Literary Resources on the
Net
"This set of pages
is a collection of links to sites on the Internet dealing especially with
English and American literature, excluding most single electronic texts, and is
limited to collections of information useful to academics." This site, from
Jack Lynch at the English department of the Newark campus of Rutgers
University, allows easy searching and points to useful materials gathered from
other sites.
Voice of the Shuttle English
Literature
This website created by Alan Liu at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, provides extensive links to critical resources about
authors and specific works, biographical information, and full texts of works,
where possible. The name specifies literature in English as opposed to only
British literature.
Medieval Literature
The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval
Scholars
This site, one considered by many medieval scholars to be the
premier site for medieval research on the Internet, does not solely focus on
literary studies but also presents cultural and historical information on the
period. The site is organized into full texts of medieval works, current
scholarship, cultures, issues, pedagogical resources, and professional
information. Use this site to discover a through background in medieval studies
and topics.
British Literature
Romantic Circles
Creators of this site
promote it as "a Website devoted to the study of Romantic-period literature and
culture." Particularly note the "Electronic Editions" section of this site
where you can find full-texts articles about the authors and their works.
American Literature
Documenting the American South: A Digitized
Library of Southern Literature, Beginnings to 1920
"The 'Library of Southern Literature'
documents the riches and diversity of Southern experience as presented in one
hundred of its most important literary works." Look for here for the full texts
of works by Southern authors in addition to essays about Southern Literature.
The Psychedelic
‘60s: Literary Tradition and Social Change
This website, created
by the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia, attempts to place the
literary traditions of the 1960's within the social context. In addition to
commentary about authors and the literary movement, here you will discover
images, icons, and other media to express all aspects of the ‘60s.