Electronic Databases | Electronic Journals | Print Materials
 Free Internet Resources

Subject Specific Databases:

 

MLA Bibliography (Modern Language Association Bibliography)

Main resource for scholarly journal articles in literature and language, although it does not include classical literature. There is currently no full text available, but the article citations link to UM's library catalog so you can tell whether we have the journal the article is in or not. From 1963 to the present.

 

Literature Online

Literature Online includes full-text English and American poetry, drama and some prose up to about 1900, African-American poetry up to 1900, and some 20th century poetry. Additionally, it includes some full-text articles and criticism, biographical information, and links to websites about authors and their works.

 

Dictionary of Literary Biography:   Also available in print.

The first place to check if you need an in-depth biography of an author. Covers high-profile authors from Chaucer to Stephen King. Often has a brief analysis of the author's major works.

Early English Books Online

Full text titles by Malory, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, Galileo, plus various prayer books, pamphlets, proclamations, almanacs, and many other primary sources are all contained in this database. These publications have been scanned into the database, thus giving the researcher access to what the original looked like.

Women Writers Online

Includes the full texts of women writers that can be browsed, searched, and analyzed.

 

Dictionary of Old English Corpus

Full-text searching for selected old English texts.

General or Related Databases:

EBSCOhost:  Academic Search Elite

Includes many full text articles from scholarly journals as well as book reviews from popular magazines and newspapers.

SEARCH TIPS: When you're looking for two or more words as a phrase, such as "Waste Land" put quotation marks around them. If you're looking for articles on a subject, put the letter SU in front of the subject, like this: SU "Harlem Renaissance."

JSTOR

Contains full-text journal articles from the 19th century up to about 2000. This is an excellent resource for older articles; sometimes, a journal may be in JSTOR but not owned by UM, so check here before requesting an article from Interlibrary Loan.

SEARCH TIPS: When searching, you can pick either a broad subject--Language and Literature, for example--or you can click on the Expand the Journal List button to search specific journals of your choice. I recommend searching the full text or the title, since only 10% of the articles in JSTOR have abstracts.

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Electronic journal issues are available through the online catalog. If you know the name of the journal you need, simply do a Journal Title search. When you don't know the exact title, click on the Electronic Journals link from the library's home page, type keywords involving some combination of "literature" or "English" in the search box, and then select "subject" from the drop-down menu.

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Print Materials

Subject Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms

[Reference] PN 44.5 .M86 1997  catalog record

A great place for lower division students to find definitions. Terms such as magic realism, pastoral, allegory, and symbolism are defined clearly, and each defintion is illustrated by an example from literature.

 

Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory

[Reference] PN 41 .H36 1992  catalog record

Medium-length definitions with great bibliographies. Ideal for beginning literature majors because the difficulty level is between the Bedford Glossary above and the two books below.

 

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms

[Reference] PN 81 .E43 1993  catalog record

Divided into the three parts indicated in the subtitle. The first section has longer explanations, while the other two sections have medium-length biographies and definitions. Not quite as intense as the Johns Hopkins below, but still geared toward literature majors and/or graduate students.

 

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism

[Reference] PN 81 .J54 1994  catalog record

For upper division and graduate students in literature. Long, detailed essays that assume a solid groundwork in literary studies. Topics include [nation or ethnic identity] Theory and Criticism, Marxism, Reader Response Theory and Criticism, and analytical biographies of major literary criticism figures.

 

Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature

[Reference] PN 41 .M42 1995  catalog record

Very short definitions of terms, authors, and works of literature. The entries do not analyze the subjects in any way. A good resource when you need a brief definition of concrete terms such as feminine rhyme, incunabulum, or stichomythia.

 

Oxford Companion to African-American Literature

[Reference] PS 153 .N5 O96 1997 catalog record

The place to come for definitions and explanations of anything relating to African-American literature. Entries range from a short paragraph to three and a half pages and include authors, terms, and genre. An invaluable resource.

 

Encyclopedia of the Novel

[Reference] PN 41 .E487 1993 -- 2 vol.  catalog record

Entries on novelists, specific novels, types of novels, and critical/theoretical approaches to novels. A great introduction to a work which includes good suggestions for further reading at the end of each entry.

 

Biography

American Women Writers

[Reference] PS 147 .A4 -- 1st and 2nd editions catalog record

Short (often less than a page) biographical entries with good bibliographies and a list of works by the author.

 

American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies

[Reference] PS 129 .A55 catalog record

Long but very accessible essays that discuss both the life of the author as well as several of their works or common themes.

 

British Writers

[Reference] PR 85 .B688 catalog record

Identical to entries described above, but for British authors.

 

Dictionary of Literary Biography

[Reference] PS 221 .D52  catalog record

Read the description at the entry for the online version of this series.

Criticism--Critical Surveys
The books listed here are a good place to start looking for literary criticism. For more information about these resources and for other places to find literary criticism, please go to our Finding Literary Criticism web page. If you need reviews of books or films, please see our Finding Book and Film Reviews web page.

Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800

[Reference] PN 86 .L56 catalog record

 

Contemporary Literary Criticism

[Reference] PN 771 .C59 catalog record

Black Literature Criticism

[Reference] PS 153 .N5 B556 1992 -- 3 vol. catalog record

Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism

[Reference] PN 761 .N5 catalog record

 

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism

[Reference] PN 771 .G27 catalog record

Shakespearean Criticism

[Reference] PR 2965 .S43 1984 catalog record

 

Short Story Criticism

[Reference] PN 3373 .S56 -- 5 vol. catalog record

Masterplots II -- Poetry Series

[Reference] PN 1110.5 .M37 -- 9 vol. catalog record

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Free Internet Resources

Voice of the Shuttle:

Literature in English

Literary Theory

[www] http://vos.ucsb.edu/

Probably the best place on the internet to start looking for high-quality English literature web sites, maintained by Alan Liu, an English professor at UC Santa Barbara. You can browse the pages listed above or search the whole Voice of the Shuttle site.

Jack Lynch's Literary Resources on the Internet

[www] http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/%7Ejlynch/Lit/

Created and maintained by Jack Lynch of Rutgers University. Updated frequently, and, like the VOS above, contains a vast amount of links for all things literary: classical to theater to feminism to hypertext.

Women and Gender Studies: Literature and Culture Web Sites

[www] http://libraries.mit.edu/humanities/WomensStudies/Culture2.html

Wonderful page with tons of links to full text (British Women Romantic Poets, African-American Women Writers of the 19th Century, among others), criticism, bibliographies, and electronic magazines. By the Women's Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies

[www] http://orb.rhodes.edu/

ORB is sponsored by a large number of medieval scholars and professors from the U.S., Canada, and England. The site includes an encyclopedia, a textbook library, e-texts, and links to other web sites.

E-Server

[www] http://eserver.org

E-Server "attempts to provide an alternative niche for quality work. We offer 44 collections on such diverse topics as contemporary art, race, Internet studies, sexuality, drama, design, multimedia, accessible publishing and current political and social issues. In addition to written works, we publish hypertext, audio and even video recordings." Published by professors and graduate students in literature, creative writing, and media studies.

Mississippi Writers Page

[www] www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/

A fabulous page from the English Department here at Ole Miss with an enormous amount of information on Mississippi literature and writers.

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