Literary Criticism
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Contents |
[edit] Articles
To find articles on specific authors and their works, use the DATABASES (available from [http://www.loyola.edu/library Library web page via English/Literature Resources or Databases by Title)
Literary Criticism:
- MLA Bibliography: References to sources on literature, language and film. (1963-pres.)
- LION: Provides text, criticism and biographical information of English and American authors.
Literary Biography/Criticism
- Literature Resource Center: Biographical information on authors as well as overviews of their work and some criticism.
Additional Useful Resources:
- JSTOR: Backfile of scholarly articles on many academic topics including literary criticism.
- Project Muse: Full-text journals in literature, performing arts and other topics.
[edit] Book Reviews (use only when you can't find enough criticism in literary journals):
- New York Times (1999-present): Good for contemporary book and film reviews. Use more search options to limit to citations and abstracts, reviews or specific dates.
- New York Times (1851-1998): For reviews of works published during this times period. Use more search options to limit to citations and abstracts, reviews or specific dates.
- Reader's Guide Retrospective (1890-1982): Limit to date book was published
- Academic Search Premier: General database that covers a variety of topics including book and film reviews.
- Book Review Digest (In print Reference Stacks)
[edit] Searching the Databases:
- Formulate a thesis question on which your research will be centered
- Search a relevant database using keywords or search by subject when appropriate.
- Use AND to find citations containing both keywords: e.g., (symbolism AND Faulkner)
- Use OR for related terms to search for citations that contain one term OR the other. e.g., (women or feminine)
- Always put OR phrases in the same search box and enclose with parentheses
- Use truncation (often the asterisk*) to retrieve similar words with different endings, e.g., spirit* will retrieve, spirits, spiritual, spirituality, etc.
[edit] Finding Full-Text:
Often the databases will provide citations but not the full-text on an article. When you have a citation and need to find the full-text, try the following steps.
- Use ArticleLinker if available in the database to help you find a journal article in another database, in the library catalog, or request it from another library.
If ArticleLinker is not available:
- Search Electronic Journals (http://www.loyola.edu/library/ejournals_a.htm) to see if a journal is full-text online (search by title of the journal NOT title of the article).
- Search the Library Catalog (SHARC) to see if a journal is located in our library.
- Request an article or book from interlibrary loan (ILL) if not full-text online or in the library. (use the Request forms on the library's home page)
[edit] Books
- SHARC: library catalog which has references to books by and about authors. The library catalog is shared by 4 other libraries. Use the request tab at the top of the page to request a book from one of these other libraries (24-48 hour turn around).
- If you can't find a book in the library catalog, you can request it through ILL.
- WorldCat: Worldwide catalog of books and other materials. Useful for finding the table of contents for short story collections.
[edit] Selected Reference Books
(located on first floor in Reference Section)
- Contemporary Literary Criticism (PN771.C59)
- Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism (PN761.N5 1981)
- Poetry Criticism (PN1010.P499 1991)
- Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (PN771.G27)
