FIT Library Research Guide Information Bulletin Literary Criticism

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Gladys Marcus Library | Research Guides | Information Bulletins

Literary Criticism 11/5/07

Prepared by Marian Weston, Reference Librarian, Adjunct Assistant Professor

Critical Essays | Biographical / Bibliographical Sources | Texts of Authors' Work | Web Sites | More Research Tips

critical essays and books about literary works

BOOKS AND NONPRINT MATERIALS
	Use StyleCat Online Catalog:
	Search by typing in the author's name and selecting subject in “Basic Keyword Search” to retrieve books about a person and his/her writings. (Searching by author retrieves books by a person.)
	Or use “Basic Browse Search”: type the name of the person (last name, first name), and select subject as the index to search. The subject list that you retrieve may include subdivisions, such Biography (for materials about the author's life) or Criticism and Interpretation (for materials about the author’s writings).
	You can also search for materials about literature of specific time periods, countries, regions, languages, ethnic groups, etc. (see section below)
SPECIFIC TITLES
	Two specific full-text online databases are available though DIGITAL LIBRARY: Literature Resource Center - LRC Online version of the Gale Literary Criticism Series plus other titles from the same publisher. Includes biographies, essays of critical analysis, online articles, web links, bibliographies, and more for many of the authors in the print series. Twayne Authors Series Includes biographies, chronologies, in-depth critical essays, bibliographies, etc. The following books are part of the Gale Literary Criticism Series and include biographical information on authors, listing of major works, and excerpts of various critical essays written about authors and their works. Books in these series, like all the specific titles referred to on this pathfinder, are located in the Reference Stacks on the 4th floor of the Library. Use the author index in the back of the latest volume of any of the titles in this series for a cumulative index to all books in the series or use the free online index, Literary Index. Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) Reference Stacks PN771 .C59 Includes living authors & those who died after 1959 (Beginning v129, those who died after 1999) Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (NCLC) Reference Stacks PN761 .N5 Includes authors who died between 1800 and 1899. Poetry Criticism (PC) Reference Stacks PN1010 .P499 Includes authors of poetry. Short Story Criticism (SSC) Reference Stacks PN3373 .S386 Includes authors of short stories. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) Reference Stacks PN771 .G27 Includes authors who died between 1900 & 1959 (Beginning v.93, those who died from 1900 to 1999)
	Among other titles of criticism available in the Library are:
	Critical Survey of Poetry Reference Stacks PN1021 .C7 2003 Critical Survey of Short Fiction Reference Stacks PN3321 .C7 2001 Reference Guide to Short Fiction Reference Stacks PN3373 .R36 1994 Masterplots series: Reference Stacks PN44 .M3 & Reference Stacks PN44 .M33 Masterplots II: American Fiction Series Reference Stacks PS373 .M37 2000 Masterplots II: Short Stories Series Reference Stacks PN3326 .M27 1986 Magill’s Literary Annual Reference Stacks Z1219 .M33
	Use StyleCat Online Catalog to find more books like these: Search by subject headings such as: Poetry, Short Story, Fiction, Literature, or Drama, and, by nationalities, such as American fiction, English drama, etc. Combine with subheadings, such as History and Criticism, Bio-Bibliography, or Stories, plots, etc.
JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK REVIEWS
	Use one or more of the following indexes to find references to journal articles and/or book reviews. ONLINE DATABASES AVAILABLE THROUGH DIGITAL LIBRARY: General OneFile (some full text) MasterFile Premier/ MasterFile Select (some full text) ArticleFirst (citations only) JStor (full text from scholarly journals) Academic Search Premier (some full text) Literature Resource Center - LRC (full-text; See description above)
	Available in the Library Reference area, 4th floor:
	Humanities Index Reference Stacks AI3 .H85 Print index; citations only Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature Reference Table #4 Print index; citations only Book Review Digest Reference Stacks Z1219 .C95 Print index; citations & review excerpts Guide to American Poetry Explication Reference Stacks Z1231 .P7 G85 1989 Print index Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication Reference Stacks Z5917 .S5 W33 print index

BIOGRAPHICAL / BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

BOOKS AND NONPRINT MATERIALS
	Use StyleCat Online Catalog to find materials written about specific authors. See section above for details. For more tips on researching people, consult the FIT Information Bulletin, Biographical Guide. Materials about categories of authors (e.g., women authors) or types of literature (e.g., American literature) can also be found using StyleCat. Some representative titles include:
	African-American Writers: A Dictionary Reference Stacks PS153 .N5 A3444 2000 Asian American Short Story Writers Reference Stacks PS153 .A84 A828 2003 The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth Century American Short Story Reference Stacks PS374 .S5 C57 2000 Contemporary Gay American Novelists Reference Stacks PS374 .N63 C66 1993 Contemporary Women Poets Reference Stacks PS151 .C67 1998 Latin American Writers Reference Stacks PQ7081 .A1 L37 1989 Latino and Latina Writers Reference Stacks PS153 .H56 L39 2004 The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature Reference Stacks PS21 .E537 2003
OTHER SPECIFIC TITLES:
	Available in the Library Reference area, 4th floor: Biography Index Reference Table #5 Contemporary Authors (CA) Reference Stacks Z1224 .C6 Consists of 3 separate series: main set, new revision series, and permanent series. Use the separate index or the free online index, Literary Index. Current Biography Reference Table #5 Gale Literary Criticism Series See description in section above Reference Guide to Short Fiction Reference Stacks PN3373 .R36 1994
	ONLINE DATABASES THROUGH DIGITAL LIBRARY: Credo Reference Gale Virtual Reference Library Literature Resource Center - LRC (See description in section above) Twayne Authors Series (See description in section above)

TEXTS OF AUTHORS' WORK

	In StyleCat Online Catalog:
	Search by author’s name ('last name, first name' in Basic Browse Search or the name in any order in Basic Keyword search; indicate author in the drop down menu in both cases) to find books by a specific author, including individual novels and poetry or short story collections. Search for a specific title. Collections of short stories by various authors can be found using the subject heading "short stories." Collections of poetry by various authors can be found under the subject heading "poetry."
	Try Short Story Index (Reference Stacks Z5917 .S5 C62) to find a specific short story published in an anthology or a magazine. Then check StyleCat to see if the FIT Library owns the anthology or the magazine. You can also check the Magazine/Newspaper/Journal Finder to find out if we have the magazine available in full text online. Use Granger's Index to Poetry (Reference Stacks PN1022 .G7) and Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry (Reference Stacks PN1022 .H39) to find specific poems published in anthologies. Then check StyleCat to see if the FIT Library owns the anthology. Use netLibrary (on DIGITAL LIBRARY - see instructions on creating a free account) to find full text works by or about many specific authors.
	Remember that New York Public Library has an enormous circulating literature collection. As a student at FIT, you can get a public library card. For details, consult Other Libraries You Can Use or the NYPL web site. Some, but not all, works of literature is available on full text literature web sites. Try some the web sites listed in the section below.

WEB SITES

You may want to use the Internet to find more criticism, biographical information, and/or full texts of authors’ works. Try:

The Internet Public Library
Under Subject Collections/Arts & Humanities/Literature
Librarians’ Internet Index
Under Arts and Humanities/Literature and Books
Refdesk.com
Under Refdesk Subject Categories/Literature

MORE RESEARCH TIPS

Baker, Nancy L., and Nancy Huling. A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students: English and American Literature. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2006.
Reference Stacks PR56 .B34 2006