Find Background Information
Tip: Use an encyclopedia for a quick overview, to develop vocabulary for searching, and to find other sources.
Electronic Sources
Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers
From: Greenwood Press
An in-depth analysis of current, best-selling fiction.
Greenwood Digital Collection
The GDC is a collection of e-books emphasizing history and literature. It is searchable by keyword, subject, author, title, or any Boolean search method.
Literary Reference Center
From: EBSCOhost
Literary Reference Center is a full text database that provides users with information on thousands of authors and their works from major respected reference works, books, and literary journals.
Literature Resource Center
From: Gale
Access to biographies, bibliographies, journal articles, and critical analyses of authors from every age and discipline. Includes Dictionary of Literary Biography.
English Short Title Catalogue
Provides bibliographic records for all surviving letter press material in the British Isles and North America before 1801, held by the British Library and more than 2000 other institutions worldwide.
Print Sources
General Literary Reference Tools
American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies R 810.9 Am 32
British Writers R 820.9 B77
Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century R 803 En1
European Writers R 809.894 Eu7
The Oxford Companion to American Literature R 810.3 H25o
The Oxford Companion to English Literature R 820.3 H26o
The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature R 820.9 Ox2i
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century British Literature R820.3 Ox2
Reader's Guide to Literature in English R 820.9 R221
Specialized Reference Tools
African American Writers R 810 9896 Af8
American Women Writers R 016.81 Am3
Chicano Literature R 810.98 C27
The Companion to Southern Literature R 810.9975 c738
A Literary Gazetteer of England R 914.2 F53
Native American Literatures R 810.9897 W61
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature R 810.8 Ox2
The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States R 810.9 Ox22
Literary Terminology and Theory Reference Tools
Dictionary of Feminist Theory R 305.4201
A Dictionary of Literary Terms R 803 C89
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms
R 801.95 En1
A Glossary of Literary Terms R 803.21 Ab8
A Handbook to Literature R 803 H73
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism R 801.95 J622
Find Articles (magazines / journals)
Recommended databases for Literature research
MLA International BibliographyOneSearch
New York: Modern Language Association
Coverage: 1926 - .
An international database that enables users to find scholarly articles from over 4000 journals on languages, literature, folklore and linguistics. It is useful for finding literary criticism on particular
authors or work, as well as information on literary theory or time periods.
JSTOR. Ann Arbor, MI: JSTOR
Coverage varies: JSTOR is not a current issues database. Because of JSTOR's archival mission, there is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the
back issues available in JSTOR.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization with a dual mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals, and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible.
Literary Reference Center
From: EBSCOhost
Literary Reference Center is a full text database that provides users with information on thousands of authors and their works from major respected reference works, books, and literary journals.
Literature Resource Center
From: Gale
Access to biographies, bibliographies, journal articles, and critical analyses of authors from every age and discipline. Includes Dictionary of Literary Biography.
These interdisciplinary databases cover a number of topics related to the humanities.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index in Web of Knowledge
From: Institute for Scientific Research (ISI)
Coverage: 1988 - current
As part of the Web of Science, the Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. For search help
you may access: Web of Science tutorial or Web-Based Training.
Humanities International CompleteOneSearch
From: EBSCOhost
A comprehensive database of humanities content, providing full text of hundreds of journals, books, and other published sources from around the world.
Internet Library of Early English Journals. (ILEJ)
Website from: Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Oxford
Browse a digitized collection of six major 18th and 19th century British journals: The Annual Register (1758-1778), The Builder (1843-1852), Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1843-1863), Gentleman's Magazine (1731-1750),
Notes and Queries (1849-1869), and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1757-1777). The latter four titles are also searchable.
ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Toronto, Ont.: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies of the University of Toronto.
Coverage: 400 - 1700
A database that provides access to published materials pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
MLA Directory of Periodicals
Contains all information available on the journals and series on the bibliography's Master List of Periodicals with more than 7100 titles.
19th Century MasterFile - Series 1
From: Paratext
Multi-title periodical indexes that includes Poole's' Index to Periodical Literature
Readers' Guide RetrospectiveOneSearch
From: HW Wilson
Coverage: 1890 - 1982
RGR is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890-1982 and reflects the history of 20th-century America.
World Shakespeare BibliographyOneSearch
Coverage: 1964 - 2006
Annotated entries for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media,
and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare and published or produced from 1964-2006.
General databases that may be useful
Academic Search PremierOneSearch
From:EBSCOhost
The world's largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database containing full text for nearly 4,700 publications, including more than 3,600 peer-reviewed publications.
Offers indexing and abstracts for nearly 8,200 journals as well as information in nearly every area of academic study.
General OneFile
From: Gale
A source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics, including business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues,
health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, and technology.
Research Library
From: Proquest
Search for journal articles on various topics including arts, business, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Includes The New York Times, USA Today,
Barron's, and The Wall Street Journal.
Find Articles (newspapers)
Newspaper Source Plus
From: EBSCOhost
Newspaper Source Plus includes 1,520 full-text newspapers. The database contains comprehensive full text for major newspapers such as The New York Times (Jan 1985 to current), The Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Mail (UK), The Irish Times (Ireland), The San Francisco Chronicle, The Times of London , USA Today (Feb. 2002-current), The Washington Post (Jan 2003 -current , The Washington Times, and others.
New York Times, Historical Archive
From: Proquest
Full text coverage: 1851 - 2006
A digital archive for the New York Times that gives access to the full content of each paper starting from the first issue.
19th Century MasterFile - Series 1
From: Paratext
Multi-title periodical indexes that includes Poole's' Index to Periodical Literature
Times Digital Archive
From: Gale
Coverage: 1785 - 1985
Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London) to retrieve full facsimile images
of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured--with all articles, advertisements,
and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.
Find Book Reviews
Academic Search PremierOneSearch
From:EBSCOhost
The world's largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database containing full text for nearly 4,700 publications,
including more than 3,600 peer-reviewed publications. Offers indexing and abstracts for nearly 8,200 journals as well as
information in nearly every area of academic study.
Book Review Digest (Print Resource)
Coverage: 1906 -
Location: Author and Title Index volumes - Reference Department
Location: Digest volumes - Compact Shelving
Book Review Index Plus
From: Gale
Coverage:1965 - present
A comprehensive online guide to book reviews that includes more than five million review citations from thousands of publications,
with links to more than 630,000 full-text reviews.
19th Century MasterFile - Series 1
From: Paratext
Multi-title periodical indexes that includes Poole's' Index to Periodical Literature
New York Times, Historical Archive
From: Proquest
Full text coverage: 1851 -
A digital archive for the New York Times that gives access to the full content of each paper starting from the first issue.
Readers' Guide RetrospectiveOneSearch
From: HW Wilson
Coverage: 1890 - 1982
RGR is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from
1890-1982 and reflects the history of 20th-century America.
Times Digital Archive
From: Gale
Coverage: 1785 - 1985
Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London) to retrieve full facsimile images of
either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is captured--with all articles, advertisements, and
illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.
Find Books
Meredith College Library Catalog
The catalog lists books, journal titles, videos, music and other items in the Meredith College libraries.
Subject heading searches may help to locate books on broad topics. A useful strategy is to do a general keyword
search to find one or two books on your topic, and then use the subject headings listed for those items to explore other relevant subject headings.
Some examples of Library of Congress subject headings are:
African American authors
American literature
Austen Jane 1775 1817
England -- Civilization
English literature
Great Britain -- History
Poetry
Shakespeare William 1564 1616
Women authors
Ebrary
Search a full text eBook collection that spans many academic subject areas.
NetLibrary
Provides easy access to the full text of more than 10,000 reference, scholarly, and professional books.
NoveList
From: EBSCOhost
NoveList is a fiction database that provides subject heading access, reviews, annotations, and much more for 125,000+ fiction titles. A readers' advisory service that is searchable by author,
title, series name, and plot (including character, topic, time period, and setting).
WorldCAT
Website from: OCLC
Search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world.
Two different search interfaces are available, WorldCAT (new user-friendly website from OCLC)
and WorldCAT (OCLC First Search)
Other Libraries
Link to libraries in the Triangle, North Carolina, and all over the world.
Find Dictionaries
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
From: Oxford University Press, 2001
Oxford English Dictionary Online
From: Oxford University Press
The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms
From: Routledge, 2006
Poetry and Prose - Full-text Collections
African-American Poetry
From: Chadwyck-Healey
The early history of African American Poetry, from the first recorded poem to the major poets of the 19th century.
American Poetry
From: Chadwyck-Healey
A collection of more than 40,000 poems from the colonial period to the early 20th century.
English Poetry
From: Chadwyck-Healey
Essentially the complete English poetic canon from the 8th century to the early 20th century. More than 165,000 poems by more than 1,250 poets drawn from nearly 4,500 printed sources.
Faber Poetry Library
From: Chadwyck-Healey
A collection of some of the most influential poets of the 20th century. The Faber list includes Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, T.S. Eliot, and Sylvia Plath covering the
70-year history of this major publishing house.
Literature in Context
From: Greenwood Press
A collection of primary source material, collateral readings, and commentary that helps students understand the historical, social, and cultural settings
associated with major literary works.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
From: Alexander Street Press
Full text of letters and diaries, plus pages of previously unpublished materials depicting the personal experiences of hundreds of women.
Twentieth Century African-American Poetry
From: Chadwyck-Healey
A database of modern and contemporary African American poetry featuring some of the most important African American poets of the 20th century.
Twentieth Century American Poetry
From: Chadwyck-Healey
A database of modern and contemporary American poetry from the early 20th century to the present.
Twentieth Century English Poetry
From: Chadwyck-Healey
Provides an overview of poetry written in the 20th century by both established and emerging writers.
Suggested Internet Resources
Internet Public Library Literary Criticism Collection
