English Literatures Selected Resources

The following is a guide to library resources that may prove useful, especially to advanced or graduate students. It is not an exhaustive list; please consult a reference librarian for help in locating additional materials.

Harner, James L. Literary Research Guide. 4th edition.

Ref. PR 83 .H37 2002

Bracken, James K. Reference Works in British and American Literature. 2nd edition.

Ref. PR 83 .B72 1998

Marcuse, Michael J. Reference Guide for English Studies.

Ref. PR 56 .M37 1990

Literature in English: A Guide for Librarians in the Digital Age.

Bookstacks Z 2001 .A2 L57 2000

Unless otherwise noted, all of these must be accessed through the Library home page (click Articles, Indexes, Databases). Remember to search SOUTHcat catalog by journal title. We may have a print subscription when electronic is not available.

MLA Bibliography.

Based on the MLA International Bibliography. Go to "Articles, Indexes, Databases" and select "M" from the alphabetical list. Not full text, but this is the major languages and literatures database. MLA covers articles and collected books from 1963- .May link to full text databases from the record in SOUTHcat catalog.

Expanded Academic ASAP (Gale Infotrac)

This is a general database with many full text literary, articles;
Citations and abstracts available when full text is not.

Academic Search Premier (EBSCO). General database. Full text to many articles.

JSTOR.

This is an academic journal database all full text. Does not cover the last five years. Many literary journals included. Link from "Articles, Indexes, Databases."

Literature Resource Center (Gale InfoTrac)

Link from "Electronic Reference Books " on the home page.These are not journal articles per se. Based on the American Writers set and the Twayne author series plus several other reference sources of biography and criticism.

Years Work in English Studies. 1919/1920- .

Bookstacks PE 58 .E6 Annual publication. Continuing subscription; there is a gap from 1952 through 1961.

Short Story in English, Britain and America: An Annotated Bibliography.

Ref. PR 829 .B35 1994

English Novel Explication (1973). Ref. Z 2014 ,F5 P26. Supplements extend coverage to mid-1993.

Play Index 1949/52- . Ref. Z 5781 .P53

Twentieth Century Short Story Explication. New Series. Ref. Z 5917 .S5 w35

British Women Writers, 1700-1850: An Annotated Bibliography.

Ref. PR 111 .W6 H67 1997

Anglo-Saxon England. 1972- . Bookstacks DA 152.2 .A75

Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500. 1967- . Ref. PR 255 .M3

Index of Printed Middle English Prose. Bookstacks Z 2014 .P795 L49 1985

Middle English Prose: A Critical Guide. Ref. PR 255 .M52 1984

Middle English Romance: An Annotated Bibliography. Bookstacks Z 2014 .R6 R5 1987

Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1475-1640. 1969.

Ref. Z 2002 .P77

Early English Drama: ‘Everyman’ To 1850, A Reference Guide. Ref. PR 641 .W48 1986

English Literary Renaissance. 1971- Serials collection.

Check SOUTHcat for holdings. This journal has bibliographies.

Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide. Ref. PR 2894 .B44 1995

Shakespeare Quarterly. 1950- .

Serials collection. Check SOUTHcat for holdings. Year’s work usually reviewed in summer issue.

Literature of the Romantic Period: A Bibliograpical Guide. Bookstacks PR 457 .L58 1998

Romantic Poetry by Women: A Bibliography, 1770-1835. Ref. PR 508 .W6 J33 1998

Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 1961- .

Serials collection. Check SOUTHcat by title. Winter issue: renaissance; spring: Elizabethan and Jacobean drama; summer: 18^th century autumn: victorian and romantic

Review of English Studies. 1950- . Check SOUTHcat for Library holdings.

Reader’s Guide To The Twentieth Century Novel. Ref. PR 888 .P53 R43 1995

For books, do keyword searches in SOUTHcat, our Library catalog:

OR subject searches, such as--

(Capital letters are not necessary; omit punctuation.)

The following selected list of series by Gale have critical excerpts of articles and have indexes.

Literature Criticism from 1400 To 1800. 1984- . Ref. PN 86 .L56

Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. 1978- . Ref. PN 771 .T9

Shakespearean Criticism. 1984- Ref. PR 2965 .S43
Many of these Gale sets are used for this electronic source:
Literature Resource Center.

Access through "Electronic Reference Books " or "Articles, Indexes, Databases."

 

Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. 1901-1905. 8 vols.

Ref. 83 .M73 Familiarly known as Moulton’s. Collected criticism of leading authors by their contemporaries, often their rivals.

keyword search: dictionaries and "english literature"

subject search : english literature [and scroll until you find the appropriate subdivision, i. e., dictionaries]

Oxford Companion To the Romantic Age: British Culture, 1776-1832. Ref. PR 447 .R64 1999

Handbook To Literature. 6^th ed. Ref. PN 41 .H6 1992

Cambridge Guide To Literature in English. Ref. PR 85 .C29 1993

Johns Hopkins Guide To Literary Theory and Criticism. Ref. PN 81 .J554 2005

Oxford Companion To English Literature. 6^th ed. Ref PR 19 .D73 2000
Oxford English Dictionary. 20 vols. + supplements. Ref. PE 1625 .O87 1989

For etymologies of English words.

Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia. 4^th ed. Ready Ref. PN 41 .B4 1996

Dictionary of British Literary Characters. 2 vols. Ref. PR 830 .C47 D5 1993

Shakespeare’s Characters for Students. Ref. PR 2989 .S53 1997

Dictionary of Irish Literature. Ref. PR 8706 ,/d5 1996

New Fowler’s Modern English Usage. 3d ed. Ref. PE 1628 .F65 1996

Gazetteer of the British Isles. Ref. DA 640 .B2 1970

New Pelican Guide To English Literature. Rev. and Exp.

Ref. PR 83 .N49 1982 Library has vols. 2-10.

Short Oxford History of English Literature. Bookstacks PR 83 .S26 1994

Concise Chronology of English Literature. Bookstacks PR 87 .S53 1985

Oxford History of English Literature. Series.

Search this title on SOUTHcat to retrieve menu (and call nos.)

Do you want a book-length biography? Search by subject on SOUTHcat, last name first.

Examples:

Biographical Dictionary of Irish Writers. Ref. PR 8727 .B5 1985

British Writers [Scribner’s] 1979- . Ref. PR 85 .B688 Library has vols. 1-8, plus supplements.

Gale InfoTrac’s Literature Resource Center

has much of this Scribner material in a subscription database available from the home page; link to "Electronic Reference"

Dictionary of National Biography. 22 vols. Ref. DA 28 .D47 1959 Supplements. Index.

Dictionary of National Biography. Missing Persons. Ref. DA 28 .D525 1993

Dictionary of Literary Biography. 1978- . Ref. PS 129 .D5

Many volumes of this series concern authors in the various genres and periods of English literature.

Old and Middle English Literature. 1994. Ref. PS .D5 v.146

The MLA Style Manual and Guide To Scholarly Publishing. Ref. PN 147 .G444 1998

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 5^th ed. Ref. LB 2369 .G53 2003

Columbia Guide To Online Style. Reserve/Ref. PN 171 .T56 235 1998

Subject or author searching for a particular writer, examples: rhys, jean;   achebe, chinua

Follow these models for subject searching:

Follow these models for keyword searching:

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures. 2 vols. Ref. PR 9080 .A52 E53 1994

Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies . Bookstacks PN 849 .U43 E53 2001

International Literature in English: Essays on the Major Writers. Ref. PR 9080 .I57 1991

Recommended Reading: 500 Classics Reviewed. Ref. Z 1035 .R37 1995

Masterplots (1968) 8 vols. Ref. PN 44 .M3

Reader’s Guide to the Twentieth Century Novel. Ref. PR 888 .P53 R43 1995

Book of 1,000 Plays. Ref. 6112.5 .F54 1989

Summaries are very sketchy for short stories; it's probably better just to read the story again.

Try these subject searches:

Altick, R. Guide To Literary Criticism and Research. 4^th ed. Ref. PN 81 .S73 1993

Handbook for Academic Authors. Ref. PN 146 .L84 1995 also Bookstacks

Redrawing the Boundaries: The Transformation of English and American Literary Studies.

Ref. / Bookstacks PR 21 .R43 1992

Romantic Poetry: Recent Revisionist Criticism. Bookstacks PR 590 .R59 1993
Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills. Bookstacks PR 21 .W39 2000

English Server. http://eserver.org

Seneca List. http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/cas/lit/lit.html

Complete Works of Shakespeare. http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html

Humanities Text Initiative. http://www.hti.umich.edu

VoS: Voice of the Shuttle. http://vos.ucsb.edu/index.asp

British Poetry, 1780-1900: A Hypertext Archives of Scholarly Editions. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/britpo.html

Romantic Circles. http://www.rc.umd.edu

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Questions (jwright@jaguar1.usouthal.edu) or call (251) 460-7025.
URL: http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/guides/englit.htm
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Last updated: 5/26/06. te