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English Literature
Journal Indexes:
Although the literature of literary studies is heavily oriented to monographic (book) publication, there is a vast body of essays and journal articles as well. Articles are particularly useful for specialized and narrow topics. These databases provide starting points for researching the journal literature.
LLBA
Provider: CSA
Contains abstracts of the world's literature in linguistics and language-related research, including journal articles, books, book reviews, dissertations and some conference proceedings. Covers all aspects of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology,syntax and semantics. Includes historical, comparative, theoretical and social linguistics and related disciplines such as anthropology, education, and ethnology. Covers 1973-present.
MLA international bibliography
Provider: ProQuest
Provides citations to journal articles, books, working papers, conference proceedings, bibliographies, and other materials. Areas covered include literature, language, linguistics, film, theatre and folklore. Covers 1926-present.
Periodicals index online (Chadwyck)
Index to journal articles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including some published as far back as 1770. Includes periodicals in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, and other Western languages.
19th century masterfile
Provider: Paratext
Offers millions of citations to periodicals, newspapers, books, patents and government documents published prior to 1925.
Full-text Resources:
These collections provide the full-text of primary and secondary sources. Note that the journal indexes listed above will also link you to full-text articles.
JSTOR
Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.
Project Muse
Provides access to journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Disciplines covered are humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
Full-text Literary Texts:
American verse project
Assembles an electronic archive of already-published volumes of American poetry prior to 1920, without any additional critical materials. The selection includes a number of works by African-American and women poets. The online volumes are coded in SGML using the TEI guidelines.
Literature On-line (Chadwyck-Healey)
Provider: Chadwyck-Healey
A full-text collection of poetry, drama, and prose. Includes complementary references sources. Offers access to information on English and American literature including bibliographies, and catalogs. Also provides access to online editions of literary works, discussion lists, electronic journals, and library catalogs. Includes links to English poetry texts, drama, and fiction. Also offers links to editions of the works of William Shakespeare, to American poetry, editions of the Bible, and Webster's dictionary.
Women writers online.
Offers a full-text collection of works in English by pre-victorian women writers. Covers 1400-1850.
Early English books online.
Contains digital images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Includes books, pamphlets, manuscripts and newspapers.
Encyclopedias:
Encyclopedic works help you identify the events, placse, and people encountered in works; discuss topics and themes; and develop biographical, historical, and critical contexts for your reading. In so doing, they enlarge your experience of and vocabulary of the work and alert you to ways of approaching it.
Columbia literary history of the United States
Publisher: New York : Columbia University Press, 1988.
Dictionaries:
The Guide lists here a variety of specialized dictionaries that will help you both build vocabulary of literary criticsm ad theory and, in the case of the Oxford Engish Dictionary (OED), with understanding the literayr works you are reading.
A glossary of contemporary literary theory
Publisher: London : Arnold ; 2000.
"Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory has been thoroughly revised and expanded to include over 70 important new terms and usages from this volatile and fast-changing field. A substantial number of the new entries come from the increasingly influential area of gender politics, Queer Theory and Masculinity Studies. New terms in this edition include 'camp', 'closet criticism', 'deghettoization', 'femaling', 'faghag/fagstag character', 'lavender language', 'cross dressing', 'outing', 'code switching' and 'transgender'. In addition, many existing entries have been revised, often substantially, and the guide to further reading has been updated."--BOOK JACKET.
Glossary of rhetorical terms with examples
Explanations of various grammatical terms with example sentences.
Oxford English Dictionary
Contains the complete text of the 20-volume OED, 2nd edition, published in 1989. Presents the words that have formed the English vocabulary from the time of the earliest records down to the present day, with all the relevant facts concerning their form, sense, history, pronunciation, and etymology. Coverage current.
Anthologies:
Large textbook anthologies offer not only a selection of texts but introductory materials and bibliographies that will help you create a context for the work you are reading.
Related Resources:
These are selected web sites that may provide you with additional high quality resources for your research.
The labyrinth
"The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a World Wide Web server at Georgetown University. The Labyrinth's easy-to-use menus and links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images on other servers around the world. Each user will be able to find an Ariadne's thread through the maze of information on the Web,"--Website (http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/info_labyrinth/info.html)
Perseus digital library
Includes a large database of images (coins, vases, sculpture), Greek and Latin texts and translations, resources for textual studies, and English word searches of the texts.
Associations and Other Organizations:
MLA, Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association is the professional organization for those who teach literature and modern languages in higher education. Through publications, conferences, and advocacy it promotes the interests of literary studies and langauge teaching.