English and Literature (Subject Guides)
Central Search
Type your search words in the box above to search the following English & Literature related resources at one time:
Databases
MLA
Bibliography
The definitive guide to literary criticism. Articles,
books, and chapters in books. From 1963 to the present.
Updated 10 times per year. Provides some links to full
text articles.
Literature Resource Center (Full Text)
provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. It covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors.
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)
ABELL contains 880,000 records, covering monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and collections of essays published anywhere in the world from 1920 onwards.
Literature Online (LION) (Full Text)
A fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 175 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources.
Academic
Search Premier(Full Text)
Includes 441 periodicals with "literature &
literary criticsm" in the subject heading. Offers
information dating as far back as 1975. This database
is updated daily.
Infotrac Academic OneFile (Full Text) 
A source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources. With extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects, OneFile is both authoritative and comprehensive. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly. Includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995. Updated daily.
JSTOR
(Full Text)
Check "language & literature" from the
search screen.
The African American Experience
A collection of resources on African American life covering such topics as history, biography, literature, arts, education, civil rights, politics, folklore, etc.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It fully covers 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and it indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals. Please log out when you are finished.
Literary
Index
Index to Contemporary Literary Criticism, Short
Story Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Dictionary
of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors,
etc. Search by Author, Title, or Subject.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800 (Full Text)
Contains full-text images of virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period. It includes more than 36,000 printed works and 2.3 million pages and is based on Charles Evans’ renowned “American Bibliography” and Roger Bristol’s supplement.
Oxford
Reference Online: Literature (Full Text)
Search and access the full text of a suite of Oxford
reference books including The Oxford Companion to American
Literature, The Oxford Companion to English Literature,
and many more.
Scribner
Writers Series (Full Text)
This database contains lengthy essays
on the lives and works of about 1,600 important authors
from around the world.
Contemporary
Authors (Full Text)
Provides complete biographical and bibliographical
information and references on more than 120,000 U.S.
and international authors.
Film & Television Literature Index
An index to film and television literature. It is a bibliographic database that provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 300 publications, and selected coverage of 300 more. The database has been designed for use by a diverse audience that includes film scholars, college students, and general viewers.
LitFinder(Full Text) 
Full-text content includes poems, stories, essays, plays and speeches. The database contains 850,000 poem citations and excerpts, biographies, work summaries, photographs and a glossary. Includes 850 Spanish-language poems with English translations.
Project
Muse (Full Text)
One of the first ventures of its kind, Project Muse
provides electronic access to the full text of scholarly
journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
Periodicals Archive Online (formerly Periodical
Contents Index) (Full Text)
Index to articles from 1802 to 1995 in the humanities
and social sciences. Includes full-text to approximately
140 journals.
Twayne's
Authors Series (Full Text)
Over 600 books full-text dealing with American, English
and world authors. The authors covered are primarily
but not exclusively literary figures.
Clase/Periodica
CLASE indexes documents published in Latin American
journals specializing in the social sciences and humanities.
Library of Southern Literature (Full Text)
This collection of electronic texts from the University of North Carolina documents the riches and diversity of Southern experience as presented in one hundred of its most important literary works from Mary Boykin Chestnut, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and others.
Victorian
Women Writers Project (Full Text)
Full-text of works by British women writers of the
19th century.
What
Do I Read Next?
Search by title, author, subject, full text, time
period, geographic location, character and reading level.
Wright
American Fiction (Full Text)
A database of early American fiction consisting of
over 1,700 novels and other works of fiction published
between 1851-1875.
ITER
A bibliography of interdisciplinary journal literature
pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700).
Citations for articles; bibliographies; catalogues;
abstracts; and discographies are included.
Dissertations & Theses: Full Text
The ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database includes over 2 million master's theses and dissertations, with over 60,000 titles added every year. It's a great resource for researchers in a wide variety of fields.
Oxford
English Dictionary (click
"Enter OED Online") (Full Text)
The complete text of the Oxford English Dictionary's
twenty-volume Second Edition and three-volume Additions
Series, as well as draft material from the current OED
project.
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Print Resources
Research Guides
Literary
Research Guide
REF PR 83 .H37
Perhaps the best literary research guide available.
An excellent place to begin your research project.
General
Cyclopedia
of Literary Characters
REF PN 44 M3
Excellent reference source and study guide.
The
Explicator Cyclopedia
REF PR401 .E9
Provides exerpts of classic expositional criticism.
Invaluable.
"The
Gale Literary Criticism Series"
A "Readers Digest" of literary criticism, the Gale books
provide concise biographical and critical introductions
to major authors. These are followed by exerpts of critical
essays. Use the Gale Literary Index to locate
material on a particular author or particular title.
Our collection includes:
Classical
and Medieval Literatrue Criticism
REF PN610 .C53
Contemporary Literary Criticism
REF PN 771 C59
Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800
REF PN86 .L57
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticsm
REF PN671 .N5
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
REF PN 771 .G27
The
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
REF PN81 .J63
Use this excellent guide to successfuly navigate the
swirling waters of literary criticism.
Magill's
Literary Annual
REF PN44 M343
Critical evaluation with bibliography of the year's
"200 outstanding books." An excellent source for critical
material on recent titles. An index covering the years
1977-the present can be found at the end of the most
recent volume.
Masterplots
REF PN44 .M32
One step above Cliff's Notes, Masterplots provides
quick plot outlines and character guides. The more
recent volumes contain a master index as well as geographic
and ethnic indicies. Series titles held by the library
include:
African
American Literature Series
American Fiction Series
British and Commonwealth Fiction Series
Drama Series
Nonfiction Series
Poetry Series
Short Story Series
Women's Literature Series
Cyclopedia of World Authors
MLA
(Modern Language Association) International Bibliography
REF PN81 .M64
For those of you who would rather use "the definitive
guide to literary criticism" in print, or need pre-1963
lit crit citations.
Biography
"The
DLB" Dictionary of Literary Biography
REF PN 451 .D52
Each entry provides a complete list of publications
for a given author followed by a throuough treatment
of the literary career of the author. Covers a wide
spectrum of authors. Each volume has a cumulative index
of authors and the entire collection is indexed in Gale's
Literary Index.
Contemporary
Authors and Contemporary Authors New Revision
Series
REF PN 451 .C5905
One of the few sources for information on current authors.
A regular cumulative index is published for the series
in addition to being indexed by Gale's Literary Index.
British Literature
British
Writers
PR 85 B688
Excellent literary biography with selected bibliography.
African American
African
American Writers
REF PS 153 .N5A344
Provides detailed literary biography of some of the
most influential African-American authors. Each entry
is followed by a detailed bibliography of primary and
secondary sources.
Black
Literature Criticsm
REF PS153 .N5B5561992
Like the other Gale Literary Criticism series,
this source is organized by author and each entry provides
concise background information and also excerpts from
classic critical essays that treat a given author's
work. Each volume provides an index and the series is
also indexed in the Gale Literary Index.
Schomburg
Center Guide to Black Literature
REF PN481 V34
"One stop, authoritative guide to black literature."
Novel
Novels
for Students
REF PN3385 .N68
Provides a complete four course meal for selected novels.
Each entry includes Author Biography, Plot Summary,
Character Outline, Themes, Historical Context, as well
as Topics for Further Study. Each volume provides an
Author/Title Index, Nationality/Ethnicity, and
Subject/Theme index.
Poetry
The
Explicator Cyclopedia Traditional and Modern Poetry
REF PR401 .E9
Provides exerpts of classic expositional criticism.
Invaluable.
Granger's
Index to Poetry
REF PN 1022 .C7
Locates poetry in anthologies. Title, first line, author,
and subject index.
Guide
to American Poetry Explication
READY REF PS 201 .R86 (located behind the reference
desk)
--and--
Guide to British Poetry Explication
READY REF PR311 .M37 (located behind the reference
desk)
Unique guides to a particular brand of criticism that
can be particularly hard to find.
New
Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
REF PN 1021 N39
"This is a book of knowledge, of facts, theories, questions,
and informed judgement about poetry."
Poetry
Criticism
REF PN1010 .P632
Like the other Gale Literary Criticism series,
this source is organized by author and each entry provides
concise background information as well as excerpts from
classic critical essays that treat a given author's
work. Each volume provides an index and the series is
also indexed in the Gale Literary Index.
Poetry
Explication
READY REF PR601 .K8 (located behind the reference desk)
An invaluable souce.
Poetry
for Students
REF PN1101 .P756
Provides a complete four course meal for selected poems.
Each entry includes Author Biography, Plot Summary,
Character Outline, Themes, Historical Context, as well
as Topics for Further Study. Each volume provides an
Author/Title Index, Nationality/Ethnicity, and
Subject/Theme index.
Short Stories
Short
Story Criticism
REF PN 3373 .S386
Like the other Gale Literary Criticism series,
this source is organized by author and each entry provides
concise background information as well as excerpts from
classic critical essays that treat a given author's
work. Each volume provides an index and the series is
also indexed in the Gale Literary Index.
Short
Stories for Students
REF PN 3373 .S3844
Provides a complete four course meal for selected stories.
Each entry includes Author Biography, Plot Summary,
Character Outline, Themes, Historical Context, as well
as Topics for Further Study. Each volume provides Author/Title
Index, as well as a Nationality/Ethnicity and
Subject/Theme index.
Twentieth-Century
Short Story Explication
READY REF PN3373 .W3 (located behind the reference desk)
International in scope.
Drama
Guide
to British Drama Explication
REF PR625 .D68
Great source for straight-forward literary criticism.
Fables
Encyclopedia
of Fable
REF PN 980 .S66
An excellent source for information on a subject that
otherwise does not receive a lot of coverage.
Women
Articles
on Women Writers 1976-1984
PR 111 S38
Excellent and thorough bibliography.
The
Female Dramatists: Profiles of Women Playwrights from
the Middle Ages to Contemporary Times
PN 471 P37
Literary biography followed by list of plays.
Feminist
Writers
PN 451 .F46
Each entry details a significan feminist author's life
and work.
Oxford
Guide to British Women Writers
PR 111 S48
Concise literary biography plus references for further
critical study.
Latino
Hispanic
Literature Criticism
REF PQ 6039 H57
Like the other Gale Literary Criticism series,
this source is organized by author and each entry provides
concise background information as well as excerpts from
classic critical essays that treat a given author's
work. Each volume provides an index and the series is
also indexed in the Gale Literary Index.
Latin
American Writers
REF PQ 7081 .A1L37
Critical anthology of representative Latin American
Writers.
Gay and Lesbian
Gay
and Lesbian Literature
REF PN 56 H57G36
International in scope.
Religious
A
Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature
REF PR 149 .B5D53
Provides biblical, exigetical, and literary adaptation
of key terms and names.
Southern
Encyclopedia
of Southern Literature
REF PS 261.S515
Reference southern literature motifs, historical eras,
writers, titles, and genres.
Shakespeare
Concordance
to Shakespeare
REF PR 2892 .B34
Find every line in Shakespeare that contains the word
"bear" or any other key word essential for your argument.
Shakespeare
Criticism
REF PR 2965 .S44
An excellent source for clear background information
as well as exerpts and notes from the most influential
Shakespeare criticism. Volumes cover individual plays
as well as classic themes.
Shakespeare
for Students
REF PR 2987 .S47
Each play is introduced in detail and entries include:
character outline, plot synopsis, scene by scene commentary,
and suggestions for further study.
Shakespeare
Index
READY REF PR 2892 S24 1992 (located behind the reference
desk)
Search for articles, book chapters, and books about
Shakespeare himself, plays, characters, and even individual
scenes. One of the most powerful Shakespeare bibliographies.
William
Shakespeare: A Textual Companion
REF PR 3071 .W44
Provides defintions of unusual words as well as variants
from separate primary sources. Invaluable for a close
reading of The Bard.
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Internet Resources
Chaucer:
An Annotated Guide to Online Resources
Bibliographies, texts, images, and other links for research
into Chaucer's work and language. Includes teaching
guides and suggestions.
Complete Plays of Shakespeare
Full text and searchable from Google Books.
Documenting the American South
Primary sources for the study of Southern history, literature, and culture. Produced by the UNC.
LitLinks
Organized by genre and author. Maintained by Beford/St.
Martin.
Literary Resources on the
Net
Links are broken down by major categories such as Renaissance,
Romantic, Theory, etc. Maintained by Jack Lynch of Rutgers.
Literature
Collection
Provides complete short stories from select (older)
famous authors. You can search the collection by author
or book. There are more than 70 books and 600 short
stories in the online literature library and new literature
classics are being added daily.
Mr.
William Shakespeare and the Internet
Guide to Shakespearean resources, scholarly and otherwise.
The
On-Line Books Page
Full-text of over 6,000 authors with links to other
literary sites such as prize winners, banned books and
women writers.
Project
Bartleby
Full text archive of major literary works.
SSSL (Society for the Study of Southern Literature) Bibliography
an annotated checklist of scholarship on writers (novelists, playwrights, poets, essayists, diarists) associated with the American South. There are over 1,000 writers currently in the checklist.
Touchstone,
a Resource for Shakespeare Studies
Brings together resources from a wide variety of places.
Provides information on all professional, amateur and
academic activity as well as details of research collections.
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Resources at the College
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