The following sources provide overviews of authors, works, and ideas in literature. When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibiliography for further reading at the end of the article. It will provide a selective list of the books, articles, and, frequently, Web resources considered to be the most up-to-date and reliable. These guides, especially Literature Resource Center, are a good start for your research.
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- Margaret Schaus, Reference Librarian and Bibliographer (HC)
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Malvern Preparatory School: Research in Literature
Using Background Information:
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
First published in 1870, Brewer's is a good handbook for identifying characters, themes, and expressions throughout literature. It has grown steadily with each new edition, but this online format is particularly convenient.
Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory & criticism
A full-text searchable database of articles on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also treats related persons and fields that have been shaped by or have themselves shaped literary theory and criticism. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography.
Literature resource center
Provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors.
Finding Books:
Use the Tripod Library Catalog to look for relevant books owned by Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore.
The following suggested subject searches are only a sampling of possibilities. To find materials on a topic not listed below, try doing a keyword search in the Tripod Library Catalog to find relevant materials and then using the subject headings assigned to those materials to find more.
Sample Subject Searches
Locating Critical Journal Articles and Essays:
Journal articles and essays written by scholars working in the various fields of literary studies are important for your research. They give focused and frequently up-to-date analyses of the pieces of literature you are studying.
Cambridge companions online.
Provides indexing, abstracts, and full text of scholarly overview articles in the Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics, The Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture, and Shakespeare Survey. These analyses of literature and related works are written by major scholars for student use. These are a great place to start your reading.
JSTOR
Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in academic fields including literary studies. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.
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.
Project Muse
Provides access to journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Disciplines covered include the humanities with literary criticism well represented.
ProQuest Research Library
Provider: ProQuest
Provides citations and frequently full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Covers 1971-present.