Dictionaries Guides, and Handbooks (for brief overviews and definitions of terms)

Dictionaries and Handbooks:

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. 4th ed. (REF PN41.B4 1996)
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (REF PN41.C67 1991)
Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th ed. (REF PN41.A184 1993)
Handbook to Literature. 8th ed. (REF PN41 .H355 2000 )
Oxford Companion to American Literature (REF PS21 .H3 1995)
Oxford Companion to English Literature (REF PR19.D73 1995)

Guides

Baker, Nancy and Nancy Huling. A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students: English and American Literature. (REF PR56 .B34 1995)
Very good guide for researching at the undergraduate level.

Harner, James L. Literary Research Guide: an Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies. (REF PR83 .H34 1998)
Excellent guide with descriptive and evaluative annotations.

(for biography and criticism)

The following ongoing sets are published by Gale Research Company. These sets provide a good overview of the lives and works of authors. Useful bibliographies are included.

Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. 19+ volumes (Index Table 3a) Includes criticism of works from classical antiquity through the fourteenth century.

Contemporary Authors. 168+ volumes. (Index Table 3-4)

Contemporary Literary Criticism. 113+ volumes. (Index Table 4) Includes biographies and criticism of authors either still living or who died after 1959.

Dictionary of Literary Biography. 202+ volumes. (Index Table 3) Lengthy illustrated biographical and critical articles, with bibliographies. Each volume covers writers from a country and era.

Drama Criticism. 12+ volumes (Index Table 3a)

Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. 75+ volumes. (Index Table 4) Excerpts from criticism of the works of writers who died between 1800 and 1899.

Shakespearean Criticism 53+ volumes (REF PR2965.S43) Excerpts from criticism about Shakespeare.

Short Story Criticism. 19+ volumes. (Index Table 2) Provides excerpts of critical reviews from articles and books.

Twentieth-Century Literature Criticism. 81+ volumes. (Index Table 4) Includes authors who died between 1900 and 1960.

See also the following sets: MasterPlots and Magills bibliographies for brief, easy-to-understand criticism and plot summaries.

Literary Criticism: Indexes provide an on-going record of recent periodical articles (and sometimes books and other scholarly materials) in a particular discipline. The indexes, annual bibliographies, and abstracts listed below are useful for the study of literature.

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, 1920- . [available online from the Library's website via Literature Online]

• ( Books Stacks:   Z2011.M69 1968)
  Covers English and American language and literature. Indexes books and journal articles published during the year under review.

Humanities Full Text (formally International Index from 1907- ; 1990 - )  [available online from the Library's website]

• Covers archaeology and classical studies, area studies, folklore, history, language and literature, literary and political criticism, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology, and related subjects. Indexes articles and book reviews from about 200 English language journals.

MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures, (1921 -   ) [available online from the Library's website]

• Covers modern languages and literatures (English, American, Medieval, Neo-Latin, Celtic, Romance, Germanic, Modern Greek, etc.); Linguistics; Literary Criticism; and Folklore. Indexes books and articles in scholarly journals published throughout the world.

Literature Online (Lion)  [available online from the Library's website]

• A fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 154 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources. Also available via LION is the ABELL online resource - The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) contains over 850,000 records, covering monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and collections of essays published anywhere in the world from 1920 onwards.

Indexes to General Periodicals: the following sources provide access to popular magazines from the 19th and 20th centuries. These sources are often useful to literary researchers for locating creative works, articles, interviews, and reviews of books, films, and plays in periodicals not covered by the standard literature indexes.

Nineteenth Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, 1890-99. (Index Table 5)

Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 1802-1906. (Index Table 5)

Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, 1900- . (Index Table 5)

Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900. (REF Z2005.H6)

Essays, Plays, Poems, and Short Stories: sources below will help you locate specific literary works appearing in anthologies.

Essay and General Literature Index, 1900- . (Index Table 2)
Useful for identifying creative or critical essays as opposed to scholarly articles.

Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. (REF PN1022.H39 1994)
Title, first line, author, and subject indexes to some 50,000 English language poems (including translations) in over 400 anthologies. Current edition is not cumulative so previous volumes should be consulted.

Play Index, 1949- . (REF PN1601.P5)
Offers author, title, and subject access to plays published in collections.

Short Story Index, with supplements. (REF PN3373.S387)
An author, title and subject index to more than 150,000 short stories published in anthologies and in periodicals covered by the Readers' Guide and Humanities Index.

• Keywords usually give you more resources (a broader search).
• Subject Headings, which use a standardized vocabulary, usually give you more specific resources on your topic.

• Boolean Operators (especially OR and AND) allow you to combine words in a logical way to get the results you want.
• Use AND to narrow your search
• Use OR to search for synonyms (broadening your search)

USE THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS TO EVALUATE RESOURCES:

• Who wrote it and can you tell the author's affiliation or background?
• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the scope or coverage of the resource?
• Why was it written/published (is the material objective or biased)?
• When was it published?
• Where was it published (who is the publisher)?
• How is the information presented (is there any supporting material)?
• How accurate does the information appear?

• Reference Desk in the Nimitz Library (x32420)
• Michael Macan at macan@usna.edu or call x36927

MM/July 2006

Comments or suggestions?
URL: http://www.usna.edu/Library/Literature/Authors.html
URL: http://www.usna.edu/Library/Literature/Engmaj.html
Last updated: 31 October 2005