Course Guides
Databases
Scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles may be located by searching the Library’s subscription databases. Listed below are suggestions for the most useful databases for articles on topics in English or American Literature. A complete list of our Digital Resources are available from the Databases link.
- Academic Search Premier [INFO]
- Humanities International Index [INFO]
- MLA International Bibliography[INFO]
- Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry
Books and More
The Library catalog (LOLA) is a database of books and other print materials, such as videos/DVDs, music CDs, and scores. The catalog offers a variety of searches - Keyword, Subject, Author, Title, and Call Number. There are hundreds of topical subject headings for specific literary genres, defined periods, movements, or other concepts pertaining to literature.Genre headings are fairly uniform, are organized by nationality, and may be subdivided by century, or other time period. There is also a great variety of other literary subject headings. A few select examples:
- Subject search for American literature 19th century History and criticism
- Subject search for English poetry 18th century
- Subject search for Transcendentalism
- Subject search for Romanticism
- Subject search for Literature and society
To search for works by or about specific writers:
Search by SUBJECT to find biographical and/or critical material about the writer.
Search by AUTHOR to find books written by the author.
Always enter personal names in INVERTED order; punctuation and capitalization not necessary.
EXAMPLE: To find books about the writings of novelist William Faulkner, search under SUBJECT as follows:
Note specific subdivisions after the name heading that designate:
Reference Material
Reference sources often are a good starting point for research that provide background information on a topic, define key concepts, or cite important research that has been done. Some key resources for literary research are listed below.
- Twentieth-century literary criticism
A large ongoing set covering writers who flourished from the beginning of the twentieth century to about 1960. Latest volume contains cumulative author index to the whole set, identifying author entries by volume number. Also gives cross references to authors in other sets by the same publisher, such as Contemporary Literary Criticism [CLC], Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism [NCLC], or the Dictionary of Literary Biography series [DLB], Short Story Criticism, Poetry Criticism, etc. Entries in each volume provide biographical overview, current list of works, and excerpts from published critical sources on specific works. There is a Cumulative Title Index for this set, as well. - Contemporary literary criticism
Covers writers flourishing from about 1960 to the present. Same format as TCLC, and other series, as described above. There is also a Cumulative Title Index for this set. - Nineteenth-century literature criticism
Covers writers who lived and wrote between 1800 and 1900. Same format as TCLC and CLC, etc., above. See separate Cumulative Title Index. - British Writers
An 8 volume set covers British writers chronologically from the period of William Langland to the poets of World War II. - British Writers Supplement
A continuing supplementary set brings coverage up to contemporary authors, while at the same time includes writers of other periods not included in the original set. A master index of authors and titles covers the both series - American Writers
A similar set covering American authors alphabetically from Henry Adams to Richard Wright in 4 original volumes, followed by a 2-volume Retrospective Supplement, and a continuing Supplementary set bringing total coverage to over 200 American poets, novelists, playwrights, essayists, and autobiographers. - Critical Survey of Long Fiction
- Critical Survey of Short Fiction
- Short Story Criticism
- Critical Survey of Poetry
Additional titles may be identified from specific course guides listed above, by seaching the Library catalog, by browsing the PR or PS sections of the Reference Shelves, or by consulting with a Reference Librarian.
Web Sites
In general, web sites are not the best choices for serious research because there is no guarantee the information being posted is authoritative, current, or sufficiently in-depth. Only use sites that you know are reputable, scholarly, current, and unbiased. The following are links to literary sites that seem to meet these criteria. There are far too many to list here - below are only a careful selection:
- Norton Anthology of English Literature
- Norton Anthology of American Literature
- Voice of the Shuttle: Literature in English
- Literary Resources on the Net
- Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- Perspectives on American Literature
There are many more topic-, genre, period, and author-specific literary webpages to be found at the Librarian’s Internet Index metasite, under the Literature & Books category. Look for the sub-links: Authors by Region, Literary Movements & Periods, Literary Criticism, Literature by Place, and others.
More…
- Ask a Librarian
- Subject librarian: Lissa Zinfon
