Literary Criticism: A Research Guide

Students of literature will find the materials below to help them as they begin their research. Whether looking for biographical information and writing style of an author or critiques of certain titles, the basic resources listed below will help students find them. The terms and phrases listed in the subject headings below can be used to search for more materials in the library's catalog and research databases. If you need further assistance, please ask a librarian.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms by Chris Baldick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 0198117337.
Over 1,000 literary terms including extensive coverage of traditional drama, rhetoric, literary history, and textual criticism.

Contemporary Literary Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Today's Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Short Story Writers, Scriptwriters, and Other Creative Writers. Detroit: Gale Research, 1973– . Annual.
Profiles approximately six to eight novelists, poets, playwrights, and other creative writers by providing full-text or excerpted criticism taken from books, magazines, literary reviews, newspapers, and scholarly journals.

Dictionary of Literary Terms by Harry Shaw. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. ISBN: 0070564906.
Explains and illustrates a number of technical terms pertaining to literature, as well as films, newspapers, and magazines.

A Handbook to Literature, 8th ed. by William Harmon, et al. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. ISBN: 0130979988.
Includes over 2,000 terms, including those from computing and information management as well as film, radio, TV, printing, linguistics, music, graphic arts, and classical studies.

The HarperCollins Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature, 2nd ed. edited by George Perkins, et al. HarperCollins, 2002. ISBN: 006019815X.
Revised and updated edition of Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature . Includes thousands of entries, contributed by more than 130 scholars, include biographies of novelists, playwrights, poets and critics, summaries of books and plays, descriptions of characters, definitions of literary terms and movements, and much more.

Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Nineteenth-Century Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Short-Story Writers, & Other Creative Writers . Detroit: Gale Research, 1981– . Annual.
Profiles approximately four to eight literary figures who died between 1800 and 1899 by providing full-text or excerpted criticism taken from books, magazines, literary reviews, newspapers and scholarly journals.

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Detroit, Gale Research, 1978– . Annual.
Excerpts from the best criticism on the major literary figures and nonfiction writers, including novelists, poets, playwrights, and literary theorists, of 1900 to 1999—the era most frequently studied in high schools.

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Critical Reading, A Guide
www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.html
An instructional guide on how to analyze and interpret literature, particularly poetry and fiction.

Literary Criticism, Internet Public Library
www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/
Contains critical and biographical Web sites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period.

PAL: Perspectives in American Literature, A Research and Reference Guide
www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/table.html
Covers major perspectives or literary movements in American literature. Discusses over 300 years of writing in America.

LitLinks
www.smpcollege.com/litlinks/home.htm
LitLinks are organized alphabetically by author within five genres: fiction, essays, poetry, drama, and critical theory.

Sparknotes
www.sparknotes.com
Offers free study guides for many literary works. Registration required.

Today in Literature
www.todayinliterature.com
Provides information on classic and international authors and poets. Includes life stories, selected links, and suggested readings.