Subject Research Guides
English
In This Guide:
Getting Help:
Finding Criticism
Articles
- MLA International Bibliography
This is one of the most comprehensive databases for literary studies. One great trick is to put the name of a poem, story, book, or author's name into one search box and then select "Descriptors" from the drop-down box that normally says "Anywhere." All the resulting articles will then be about that poem, story, book, or author. - Humanities International Complete
Full-text of journals, books and other sources from around the world in all aspects of the humanities. - Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)
As part of Literature Online, ABELL indexes books, articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays, and doctoral dissertations from 1920 on. Worldwide coverage, including work in languages other than English. Includes some full text. - Periodicals Archive Online
Few databases index journals and articles as far back in history as this database does. You can find things indexed from the 19th century forward. - Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier is great because it is a multi-disciplinary database. Notice that you can limit your searches so that they only return articles from scholarly (peer reviewed) journals. - ProQuest Research Library
This is another multi-disciplinary database. It may index slightly different journals, so if you didn't find what you were looking for in Academic Search Premier, check here before giving up. - Web of Knowledge
Covers more than 1,140 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals in a broad range of disciplines from 1989-present. If you are new to citation searching, you might find these instructions helpful.
Books
- Bridge (or WorldCat)
Search books and materials owned by Carleton and St. Olaf (or, if you use WorldCat, thousands of libraries across the United States).
TIPS:- An author's name (last name first) will be the Subject of a work if that work is written about that author. Doing a subject search for the author's name will therefore show you biographies and works of criticism.
- Scholarly biographies often include criticism. See if the biography has an index at the back of the book, and then check to see if the work you're looking for appears there.
Finding Theory
- The Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism.
REF PN81 .E53
Literary figures and movements are included in this encyclopedia. - Literary Theory
Online collection of essays and criticism pertaining to the history of literary theory. Texts span from the 5th century BC to 1994 and include writers such as Plato and Judith Butler. This is the only collection we have that makes literary theory itself the primary focus. - Web of Knowledge
[hybrid theorist search instructions] - Bridge (or WorldCat)
Search books and materials owned by Carleton and St. Olaf (or, if you use WorldCat, thousands of libraries across the United States).
TIPS:- Straight literary theory is difficult to find unless you have the name of a theorist in mind (in which case, simply do and Author search to see what we have by that theorist). Try combinations of keyword and Subject searches for broad categories of thought, and try combining these (using the Advanced Search form) with the Subject "Literature." Here are some examples:
- Straight literary theory is difficult to find unless you have the name of a theorist in mind (in which case, simply do and Author search to see what we have by that theorist). Try combinations of keyword and Subject searches for broad categories of thought, and try combining these (using the Advanced Search form) with the Subject "Literature." Here are some examples:
Finding Biography
There are biographies aplenty when you're looking for information on authors who lived some time ago, but for more recent authors (especially those that are still alive), these sources may be of use. For authors writing currently, check the web to see if they have personal web sites.
Reference Works
- Contemporary Authors
Biographies of 20th and 21st century novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters. If you don't find what you need here, look in the Dictionary of Literary Biography (see below). - Dictionary of Literary Biography
PN451 .D4
This is the print version of the Contemporary Authors database. It is more complete than the online version, so if you don't find what you need online, look here before you give up. This version also does a better job of giving you places to find out more about the author. To find an author, go to the latest volume having a cumulative index. The index will give you the volume number where you can find your author. Authors are alphabetical by last name within each volume. If you don't find what you need here, ask a librarian for assistance.
Books
- Bridge (or WorldCat)
Search books and materials owned by Carleton and St. Olaf (or, if you use WorldCat, thousands of libraries across the United States).
TIPS:- An author's name (last name first) will be the Subject of a work if that work is written about that author. Doing a subject search for the author's name will therefore show you biographies and works of criticism.
- You can add additional Subjects to see if we have specific kinds of information about your author. These include "Biography," "Sources," "correspondence," "diaries," etc. These are best added in the "Advanced Search."
Finding Literature
- Digitized Texts - Subscription
Carleton subscribes to several collections of digitized texts and other primary sources. - Digitized Texts - Free
Every year, more and more texts are available online for free. These are some of my favorites. - Bridge (or WorldCat)
Search books and materials owned by Carleton and St. Olaf (or, if you use WorldCat, thousands of libraries across the United States).
TIPS:- Do an Author search for the author's name (last name first) to pull up a list of everything we have by that person.
- For works that appear under many variations of a name, or for famous works in foreign languages the catalog will often include a "Uniform Title." For example, War and Peace has the uniform title Voĭna i mir. To find English translations of this work, add the word "English" after the period. The final search of "Voĭna i mir. English." Reveals all 6 versions of the work in English. You will not have to use this type of search often, but when you do, it can be a huge time saver. I know of no better way to find various editions or translations of works like the Bible.
Finding Book Reviews
- Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, 1920-
Description: Indexes journal articles, books, critical editions of literary works, and essay collections publish in English.
To Find Book Reviews: Use the author's name and/or book title as a keyword search. Select the "Reviews" check box at the bottom of the search page. - Academic Search Premier
Description: Indexes many periodicals important to the study of literature, most of which are available in full text. (Also includes the New York Times Book Review and other such trade publications.)
Periodical Types Included: Scholarly, Trade
To Find Book Reviews: Use author's name and/or book title as keyword (or default). Select "Book Review" from the "Document Type" selection box near the middle of the "Refine Search" section of the search page. You may limit your search to "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" if you only want reviews from academic journals. - ProQuest
Description: Access to thousands of newspapers, popular magazines, and trade publications, as well as scholarly journals important to Literary Studies. Much of this is available in full text.
Periodical Types Included: Scholarly, Trade, Popular, News
To Find Book Reviews: Use the author's name and/or book title. Click "More Search Options" just below the the contents of the search screen. Then select "Book Review" from the "Document Type" drop-down box near the bottom of the search options. You can also limit your search to "Scholarly journals, including peer reviewed" to get reviews from academic journals. - Humanities International Complete
Description: Access to trade and scholarly periodicals dealing with all aspects of Humanities research.
Periodical Types Included: Scholarly and Trade
To Find Book Reviews: Type the author and/or title into a search box. In the next search box type "Book Review" in quotation marks. - Periodicals Archive Online
Description and Tips: Older issues are indexed here as far back as the 1800s. For example, the Journal of American Studies is indexed all the way back to 1956 (its first issue). However, there's no full text available from this database, so you'll have to use the Journals List to see if we have access to the full text of the journals listed here elsewhere either in print or online.
Publication Types Included: Scholarly, Trade
To Find Book Reviews: Use the author's name and/or book title and select the "Book Reviews" check box from the upper right-hand section called "search options" in the main search screen. - Book Review Index
Ref Z1035.A1 B62
Description and Tips: Each entry (laid alphabetically by author of the book that has been reviewed) contains an abbreviation for the journal containing the review, and minimal citation information pointing to the issue and page(s) where the review appears. Remember that books are often reviewed the year after they were published, and that Book Review Index is published three times a year, so you may have to look up to two years after the book's publication date before seeing the first published review. Then check the next volume or two to make sure more reviews weren't published after the initial reviewing frenzy.
Periodical Types Included: Scholarly, Trade
To find the full text of the review cited in Book Review Index: Use the Journals List to see if we have access to the journal in which the review appeared. Then browse or search that database to find the actual review. This can be tricky. Remember, page numbers are your friends, as are keyword searches for titles and authors. - LexisNexis Academic
Description and Tips: Best for trade publication reviews such as Publisher's Weekly.
Periodical Types Included: Trade, News
To Find Book Reviews: Enter search terms into the search box (such as the author's name and/or book title) and click "Search." Then select "Subject" from the "Sources by Category" drop box in the top left-hand corner of the result screen. Select "Book Reviews" from the resulting list of subjects along the left-hand sidebar. Alternatively, if you want to search only among sources that specialize in reviewing books (such as Kirkus Reviews), click "News" and then select "Book, Movie, Music, Play, and Video Reviews" from the "Sources" drop-down box. - Readers Guide Retrospective
Description: Best for popular, trade, and news publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Review of Books, and History Today. This set is remarkable in that it indexes these periodicals between 1890 and 1982.
Periodical Types Included: Popular, Trade, News
To Find Book Reviews: Enter the author and/or title into a search box and then select "Book Reviews" from the "Document Type" dropdown box. - Web of Knowledge
Description: Many book reviews of all types are included in this citation database. The database itself is known primarily for it's ability to search and analyze citations found in scholarly and trade publications, including the ability to ask who has cited a particular article or book, or who has citations similar to those found in a particular article or book.
Periodical Types Included: Scholarly, Trade
To Find Book Reviews: Begin a "General Search." Use the author's name and/or book title into the "topic" search box. At the bottom of the search screen select "Book Reviews" where it says "All Document Types."
Language
- Oxford English Dictionary
The ultimate reference on the development of English words and phrases. The online version is constantly being updated. The print version (2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. [Ref PE1625 .O87 1989]), however, is still a pleasure to use. - Websters' Third New International Dictionary
Based on the last major revision of the New International Dictionary (published in 1961), this online version is constantly updated with new terms and modern usages. - Bartleby.com
A multi-use reference site, which includes links to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (as well as other quotation resources), Roget's Thesaurus, dictionaries, English usage resources, and literary reference works such as a hypertext version of the 18-volume Cambridge History of English and American Literature. - A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
by Robert Harris
An online glossary of terms used in literary study.
Further Information
This Research Guide By:
Iris M. Jastram- Reference & Instruc. Librarian for Literature and Languages
- x7105
- ijastram@carleton.edu
- Library 463
