Literature in English

This guide is highly selective and is designed to provide an overview of some of the general reference materials in English and American Literature. All items listed are available in Millar Library.

Within this page the following symbols are used:
to denote books; to denote cd-rom resources; to denote PSU licensed web resources; and to denote generally accessible internet resources.

Items having this background color are particularly important resources.

See also related guides Applied Linguistics | Medieval Studies l Shakespeare | Theater

Encyclopedias

Provide excellent background/overview information. An excellent place to begin research. Contain articles written by experts for a general audience. Provide indexes indicating scope of coverage of a topic and pinpointing articles in which a concept will be discussed. Provide bibliographies for further reading.

	Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. 4th Ed. Reference, Z699.5 .R44 A8
	Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas. 1974. 5 Vols. Reference, CB5 .D52
	Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms. Reference, PN81 .E468 1993
	Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature. Reference, PN41 .E48 1998
	Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism, 2 Vols. Reference, PN74 .E53 1999
	Encyclopedia of Post-colonial literatures in English, 2 Vols. Reference, PR9080 .A53 1994
	Encyclopedia of the Novel, 2 Vols. Reference, PN41 .E487 1998
	Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century. Reference, PN771 .E5 1999
	Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Reference, PN41 .M42 1995

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Reference Books

Handbooks, dictionaries, statistical sources, tables; detailed or procedural information specific to the subject areas addressed.

	The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Reference, PR85 .C29 1993. (Covers the literature of Britain, America and the Post-colonial British countries.)
	The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Reference, PR111 .B57 1990
	A Literary History of England, 2nd Ed. Reference, PR83 .B3 1967a
	Literary History of the United States, 2 Vols. Reference, PS88 .L522 1974
	The Oxford Companion to American Literature, 6th Ed. Reference PS21 .H3 1995
	The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th Ed. Reference, PR19 .O94 2000
	The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Literature in English. Reference, PR471 .O94 1996

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Literary Definitions

	Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Reference, PN43 .B65 1970
	Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs, 1988. 2 Vols. Reference, PN43 .D48 1988
	A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 4th Ed. J. A. Cuddon. Reference, PN41 .C83 1998
	Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, 2nd Rev. Ed. Reference, BL600 .V74
	A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory, 4th Ed. Jeremy Hawthorn. Reference PN44.5 .H35 2000
	A handbook to Literature, 8th Ed. Reference, PN41 .H355 2000
	The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Reference, PN1021 .N39 1993
	The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed., Reference, PE1625 .O87 1989 The Oxford English dictionary second edition on compact disc, Reference, PE1625 .O87 1992
	Symbolism: A Comprehensive Dictionary. Reference, CB475 .O38 1986

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Guides to English Literature Research

	A Guide to English and American Literature, 3rd Ed. Reference, Z2011 .B32 1976
	Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies, 3rd Ed. James Harner. Reference, Z2011 .H34 1998
	A Reference Guide for English Studies. Michael J. Marcuse. Reference Desk, PR56 .M37 1990
	Reference works in British and American Literature. Z2011 B74 1990. Also Computer File, Z2011 B74 INTERNET

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Databases, Indexes, and Abstracts

Magazine, periodical and journal articles provide information on current developments, research trends, experiments and hot topics in a discipline. For every discipline, there are specific databases or indexes that provide article level information. Once articles are identified through the database or index search, look up the source journal in Vikat, PSU Library's online catalog, to locate them in the library. For a complete list of online databases and indexes, see the Library's Online Databases pages.

	Abstracts of English Studies, 1958-1991. Reference Index, PE1 .A22
	Alternative Press Index. Reference Index, AI3 .A27
	American Humanities Index, 1975-. Reference Index, AI3 .A29
	Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, 1923-. Z2011 .M69
	Arts & humanities citation index (1974-present) AI3 .A75 (Reference Index) Allows searching of references cited in books and journal articles as well as author, title and subject searching.
	British Humanities Index, 1962-. Reference Index, AI3 .B7
	The Columbia Granger's world of poetry PN1022 .C628 1997 (Reference)
	EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier Provides full text for nearly 1,380 journals covering the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, and education.
	Early English Books Online EEBO The collection contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection. Additionally, the database inclused the Early English Books Tract Supplement. A guide to the microfilm collection of Early English Books:: http://www.lib.pdx.edu/instruction/courserelated/EnglishClasses/earlyenglishbooks.html
	Essay and general literature index (1900-1996) AI3 .E752 (Reference Index) Essay and General Literature Index Provides an author and subject index to essays in collections. Emphasizes the humanities and social sciences.
	Gales Literary Index. Reference Index, Z6511 .G35. (A master index to 43 literary series published by Gale, including Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism.)
	Humanities index - 1975 - Present AI3 .H8 (Reference) A cumulative index to English language periodicals. Subject fields indexed include archaeology and classical studies, area studies, folklore, history, language and literature, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology, and related subjects. Humanities Index
	Inter-Play: an on-line index to plays in collections, anthologies and periodicals. http://www.lib.pdx.edu/systems/interplay An index to the complete texts of plays in collections, anthologies and periodicals in the PSU Library.
	JSTOR - Holds the full text of 117 scholarly journals with complete back file access in the Arts & Sciences I Collection. The literature and history journal selections will retrieve relevant results. Contains the African American Review, 1992-2000; Black American Literature Forum, 1976-1991; Negro American Literature Forum, 1967-1976; American Literature, 1929-1999; Callaloo, 1976-1994; ELH, 1934-1994; MLN, 1962-1994; Modern Language Notes, 1886-1961; Nineteenth-Century Literature, 1986-1999; Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 1949-1986; Trollopian, 1945-1949; Representations, 1983-1999; Shakespeare Quarterly, 1950-2000; Speculum, 1926-1998; Transition, 1961-1999; Yale French Studies, 1948-2001.
	Literature Online-LION. (English and American poetry, drama and prose, plus biographies, bibliographies and key critical and reference sources.)
	MLA international bibliography (1921-present) Z7006 .M64 (Reference) MLA international bibliography (1963-present) For literature as a whole, this is the single most important bibliography. MLA Bibliography covers literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide. Licensed from the Modern Language Association.
	Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature 1890-1899, with supplementary indexing 1900-1922. Reference Index, A1 .R4 1996.
	Poole's Index to Periodical Literature 1892-1896. Reference Index, AI3 .P7.
	Project Muse: Scholarly journals online Holds over 100 full text scholarly journals online in the arts & humanities, the social sciences, and mathematics. The back files for the journals are scant. Important inclusions for this subject are the Yale Journal of Criticism (1996-present), and Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 (1999-present).
	Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, 1900-. Reference Index, AI3 .R48 Readers' Guide Retrospective
	Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. Reference Index, AI3 .W45.
	WorldCat http://firstsearch.oclc.org/fsip?dbname=WorldCat&done=referer Contains more than 30 millions records for materials cataloged by the Library of Congress and OCLC member libraries, including most academic and many public libraries in the U.S. Catalog includes books, serials (journals, magazines and newspapers), musical scores, recordings, videos, computer software, films, maps and manuscripts. Locations for all materials are cited. Can be searched by author, title, subject, year, language, material type.

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Subject Headings

Subject headings allow you to search library catalogs for materials on a particular topic. Often subject heading searching can be more productive than searching by simple keywords. Listed here are some major subject headings of interest for research in Literature in English. Copies of the complete set of the Library of Congress Subject Headings are available at the reference desks throughout the library. 

For general works, check under different types of literature or literary periods, for example:
 

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Call Numbers

Browsing the library shelves by call number ranges is another strategy for locating information on a topic; call numbers can help you get to the "right neighborhood" in the library stacks.

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Organizations

Often the best way to find information on a topic is to look for material published by a professional society or an organization.

	English and Comparative Literature Departments/Voice of the Shuttle: English Literature http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2743
	English Department Home Pages Worldwide. (More than 1300 departments. A growing list of English Department home pages, in great variety.) Http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/english/links/engdpts.html
	Resources of Scholarly Societies-Literature. Http://www.scholarly-societies.org/literature_soc.html

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Web Resources-Literature in General

	Bartleby: Great Books Online. http://www.bartleby.com
	Labyrinth: A Worldwide Server for Medieval Studies. http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/labyrinth-home.html
	Literary Resources on the Net. Http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ A comprehensive collection of links to sites on the Internet dealing especially with English and American literature.
	The Perseus Project. Digital library of source material. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu.

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Web Resources for Writers

	Paradigm Online Writing Assistant. http://www.powa.org/
	MLA Style Guide. http://www.newark.ohio-state.edu/~osuwrite/mla.htm
	Merriam-Webster Dictionary. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary
	Roget's Thesaurus. http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/ROGET.html
	A Dictionary of Slang. http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/

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