Research Guides: English Literature: Websites

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Key Resources

Oxford English Dictionary - online
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The definitive dictionary for the English language

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Database.Provides a subject index for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.

MLA Citation Style (Modern Language Association)
Style guide. Frequently used in English and Humanities studies. Check with your instructor to be sure.

The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism by Michael Groden (Editor); Martin Kreiswirth (Editor); Imre Szeman
Call Number: PN 81 .J64 2005
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism has become the indispensable resource for scholars and students of literary theory and discourse. The long-awaited second edition includes 48 new entries and subentries and has been revised throughout, taking account of ten years of rapidly changing scholarship.

Article Databases

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Provides access to scholarly research in nearly 4,000 journals and series. Also covers relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats. Updates: unknown
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Provides a searchable, online, full-text collection of over 250 humanities and social science journals. Update frequency: N/A
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR represents over 600 journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences. NOTE: Does not provide access to current issues of periodicals. JSTOR provides archival access to journals and access to journals varies from publisher to publisher. In most cases two to five years plus the current calendar year are excluded.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Provides access to current and retrospective citations and cited references found in nearly 1,130 of the world's leading arts & humanities journals. Arts & Humanities Citation Index covers individually selected, relevant items from approximately 7,000 of the world's leading science and social sciences journals. Weekly updates.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Scholarly collection, spans nearly every area of academic study. Updated daily.
Gale Literary Index This link opens in a new window
The master index to the major print literature series published by The Gale Group. Frequency of updates: N/A. Combines and cross-references more than 130,000 author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and more than 140,000 titles into one source.
Contemporary Authors Online This link opens in a new window
Find biographical information on more than 149,000 modern novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters. Sketches typically include personal information, contact information, career history, writings, biographical and critical sources, authors' comments, and informative essays about their lives and work. -Description from Publisher
British Literary Manuscripts This link opens in a new window
Contains hundreds of thousands of pages of rare manuscripts, poems, plays, essays, novels, diaries, journals, correspondence, and other manuscripts from 1100 through the Victorian era.
Times Literary Supplement (TLS) Historical Archive, 1902-2009 This link opens in a new window
Contains every page of every copy of the TLS published from 1902-2009.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Access to international scholarly literature in the humanities and social sciences disciplines. Update frequency: N/A

Books to Get You Started

General Reference Books

Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature by David Scott Kastan (Editor)
Call Number: PR 19 .O95 2006 v.1-5
ISBN: 0195169212
From folk ballads to film scripts, this new five-volume encyclopedia covers the entire history of British literature from the seventh century to the present. In five hundred substantial essays written by major scholars, the Encyclopedia includes biographies of nearly four hundred individual authors and a hundred topical essays with detailed analyses of significant themes, movements, genres, and institutions.
Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature by Kathy J. Whitson
Call Number: PN 471 .W455 2004 Print & E-book
Many women writers have secured a solid place in the literary canon, while others have remained marginalized. This reference includes alphabetically arranged entries on roughly 70 women writers whose works are widely read in English, and on some 20 related topics.
Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage by Claude J. Summers (Editor)
Call Number: PN 56 .H57 G365 2002
The revised edition of The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage provides overviews of gay and lesbian presence in a variety of literatures and historical periods; in-depth critical essays on major gay and lesbian authors in world literature; and briefer treatments of other topics and figures important in appreciating the rich and varied gay and lesbian literary traditions. Included are nearly 400 alphabetically arranged articles by more than 175 scholars from around the world.
Key Concepts in Literary Theory by Julian Wolfreys; Ruth Robbins; Kenneth Womack
Call Number: PN 44.5 .W65 2006
Key Concepts in Literary Theorypresents the student of literary and critical studies with a broad range of accessible, precise and authoritative definitions of the most significant terms and concepts currently used in psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, Marxist, feminist, and postcolonial literary studies.

Drama

Drama Criticism by Lawrence J. Trudeau, editor
Call Number: PN 1601 .D59 V.1-44
Presents criticism of the most significant and widely studied dramatic works from all the world's literatures. There is a cumulative author index in each volume. Use the last volume of this set to see the index for the entire series.
The Oxford Dictionary of Plays by Michael Patterson (Editor)
Call Number: PN 1625 .P38 2005
The Oxford Dictionary of Plays provides accessible, authoritative, handy, and illuminating information on 1000 of the best-known, most popular, and most important plays of world theatre.
The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama by Gabrielle H. Cody (Editor); Evert Sprinchorn (Editor)
Call Number: PN 1861 .C65 2007 v.1-2
A wholly unique A to Z reference for modern drama, this authoritative encyclopedia differs from others in highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of drama by placing playwrights and plays within their social, cultural, and historical contexts.

Poetry

Who's Who in Twentieth Century World Poetry by Mark Willhardt (Editor); Alan M. Parker (Editor); Andrew Motion (Foreword by)
Call Number: PN 1271 .W46 2000 Ebook
Publication Date: 2001-01-05
This reference brings a global perspective to bear on modern verse. It is a comprehensive volume, which provides biographical information on the greatest poets of the 20th century and gives a succint critical account of their work.

Short Stories

Short story criticism
Call Number: PN 3373 .S56 V.1-212
Presents excerpts from criticism of the works of short fiction writers. Criticisms of works of major short story writers of all eras and nationalities. There is a cumulative author index in each volume.
A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English by Erin C. Fallon (Editor); R. C. Feddersen (Editor); James Kurtzleben (Editor); Susan Rochette-Crawley (Editor); Maurice A. Lee (Editor)
Call Number: PS 374 .S5 R43 2001 Ebook
Publication Date: 2000-12-30

Websites

Related Associations & Societies

Modern Language Association (MLA)
The Modern Language Association of America "provides opportunities for its members to share their scholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to discuss trends in the academy". MLA holds an annual conference; publishes the MLA Bibliography, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and numerous book series; and offers career resource information and fellowships.
Poetry Foundation
"The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience."
Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers
English Association

Websites

Internet Archive: Text Archive
Provides access to over 10,000,000 fully accessible pubic domain eBooks and texts, including many historical primary sources from various libraries and from Project Gutenberg.
Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature
Contains works from the Medieval, Renaissance, 17th century and Restoration Periods.
Project REVEAL Digital Collection
This is an initiative of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. A primary goal of Project Reveal is "to increase access to a selection of the Center's manuscript collections by digitizing entire literature collections believed to be in the public domain." As of 2015, 25 manuscript collections from American and English authors of the 19th and early 20th century are available.
Critical Reading: a Guide (John Lye, Brock University)
British National Bibliography
The British National Bibliography (BNB) lists the books and new journal titles published or distributed in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 1950.
Romantic Circles
Romantic Circles is a refereed scholarly website devoted to the study of Romantic literature and culture.
Bartleby.com Great Books Online
This site includes dictionaries of quotations, proverbs and maxims, poetry anthologies, proverbs and maxims; full text of Harvard Classics, the King James Bible, and much more.
Digitised Manuscripts (British Library)
Provides digitized copies of manuscripts and archives in the British Library collection, including Beowulf, St. Cuthbert Gospel, Malay Qur'an, Leonardo da Vinci's Notebook, the Petit Livre d'Amour and many more manuscripts from all over the world.
Early English Books Online: Text Creation Partnership
Provides transcriptions of over 25,000 texts published between 1473 and 1700. Another 40,000 texts will gradually be added to the collection.
English Short Title Catalogue
The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists 460,000 items published mainly in the British Isles and North America between 1473 and 1800.
First World War Digital Poetry Archive
The First World War Poetry Digital Archive is an online repository of over 7000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research.
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
This freely available resource has been very favourably reviewed. It contains over 12,000 entries and is being regularly updated.

Citation Guides

Common Citation Styles

ACS Citation Style (American Chemical Society)
APA Citation Style 7th ed (American Psychological Association)
Psychology and other social sciences, e.g., Linguistics, Sociology, Economics, Criminology. Also Nursing and sometimes Business. But check with your instructor!
APA Citation Style 6th ed. (American Pscyhological Association)
guide to citing your sources for Psychology and other social sciences, e.g., Linguistics, Sociology, Economics, Criminology. Also Nursing and sometimes Business. Check with your instructor for which edition to use.
ASA Citation Style Guide (American Sociological Association)
Sociology and other social sciences, but check with your instructor to be sure.
Chicago Manual of Style
Style guide. Commonly used for History, the Humanities and various other disciplines. However, check with your instructor.
CSE Citation Style (Council of Science Editors)
Biology and other sciences.
MLA Citation Style (Modern Language Association)
Style guide. Frequently used in English and Humanities studies. Check with your instructor to be sure.

Research Strategies

Research Tips

Some really great resources to consult are:

Guide to Evaluating Web Sites
Learn how to recognize high quality information on the internet and in print.
Following a Citation Trail
Discover how to find a book from a reading list or a bibliography/reference list.
Citation Management
This guide provides an overview of citation management, its benefits, and information about getting started with citation management software.

Quick Links

Article Databases
See the full list of all TRU article databases
Find your Subject Librarian
Connect with the librarian best able to help you in your research
Forms
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TRU Library Events & Workshops Calendar
Calendar listing current workshop offerings at the TRU library