Subject Guide: Literature
All resources have been selected for their potential usefulness. When multiple sources are listed, those of special value or reputation have been marked with an asterisk (*)
How to Find Literary Criticism
Guidelines and suggested resources for locating critical discussions of authors and literary works.Databases/Electronic Resources at Baruch
Databases for research in literature, some available off campus.Literature Resources on the Web
Selected Internet resources accessible both on and off campus.Writing Resources
Help in preparing and writing research papers; online writing labs; grammar and citation style guides; ESL resources.
LITERARY CRITICISM
|  Mary Shelley (1797-1851). English Novelist. | |||||||||||||||||||||
WHAT IS LITERARY CRITICISM?
"Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the form of a critical essay.... Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or may look at an author's writings as a whole." (From the Internet Public Library's Pathfinder: Literary Criticism, a useful guide) Criticism has traditionally been published in books and scholarly journals, and these are still the sources of primary importance. Increasingly, critical material can be found on the Web, but these resources must be used with caution (see Web resources below).
Although college students are not expected to be professional critics, they need to develop analytical skills in reading and writing. When a teacher assigns an essay about a literary text, you are being asked to think like a literary critic. In a case like this, it is not sufficient to provide a plot summary. Your teacher wants you to analyze the way the text makes meaning. Often, the teacher expects that you will arrive at this understanding simply by re-reading the text several times and thinking hard about the way it is constructed. If you have difficulty arriving at your own understanding, or if you are asked to do research on the text, you need to read several different essays about the work and then select the points that make most sense to you.
A good undergraduate essay integrates the student's own ideas with other insights suggested by research. In writing your essay, you give credit to the authors of the essays and show your own understanding of the insights you borrow by going beyond them.
Criticism published in books...
Use CUNY+, the Web-based online catalog of the collections of all CUNY libraries. It can be accessed by visiting the Newman Library Web site, selecting "Online Catalog," and following the links to CUNY+. You can search all CUNY libraries at once (CUNY Union Catalog) or select an individual library (such as Baruch).
To find critical studies of an author, use the "Search by Keyword" box on the basic search screen to enter an author's name, last name first. Select "subject" from the drop-down menu below the search box if you want books ABOUT the author. Selecting "Author" will find books BY the author, and searching "All Fields" will find books both by and about the author. You can combine the author's name with other keywords, but remember to connect them with "and" and be sure the "Words adjacent?" command beneath the search box is set to "No."
Search examples: morrison tonimorrison toni and criticism
morrison toni and beloved
morrison toni and race
You can also search CUNY+ using the "Browse an Alphabetical List" box. Entering an author's name (last name, first name) and selecting "Subject" from the "Select list to browse" menu will give you a list of subheadings under the author's name, including the titles of works about which there are critical studies.
Some selected examples for Toni Morrison:
morrison tonimorrison toni -- Bluest Eye
morrison toni -- criticism and interpretation
morrison toni -- interviews
Look for other subheadings, such as "characters" or "political and social views" that may be relevant to your research. General critical studies (under "criticism and interpretation") and the titles listed first under the author's name (without a subheading) may also be useful. Scholarly books usually have a subject index, so you can see if they discuss your topic.
Similarly, you will not always find entire books written about a particular literary work, but if you look at the more general critical studies of the author, you may find that the work is discussed in them. To find out, you will usually have to examine the books (and their indexes) on the shelf.
CUNY+ can also be searched for books on broader aspects of literature, such as literary periods, movements, forms, genres, themes, character types, style, etc. Enter the terms you are looking for in the keyword search box, and select "Subject" or "All Fields." Consult a reference librarian if you need help with this or any other type of search.
Criticism published in scholarly journals...
Use the following indexes to locate articles.
Academic Search Premier Academic Search Premier contains full-text articles from many magazines and journals, with abstracts and indexing for many more. A multi-discipline database designed for academic institutions, it provides good coverage of journals in the humanities, literature, language and linguistics, the arts, and related areas of academic study.
Humanities Abstracts This database indexes a wide range of scholarly journals, with abstracts.
JSTOR This full-text database provides extensive back files of a number of important literary journals. Although includes fewer journals than other indexes, it is worth searching for the back-file coverage.
MLA International Bibliography This major annual list of critical materials on literature, including both articles and books, is available through the Literature Resource Center. The MLA itself does not contain full text or abstracts, but you will find links to the full text for some entries. Other book or journal titles should be searched in CUNY+ and/or in the full-text journals list on the library's Information Resources page. As with any published bibliography, the materials located in the MLA will not always be available in CUNY libraries.
Collections of selected criticism...
Critical material excerpted from a variety of books and journal articles can be found using the following sources. These are convenient shortcuts to a limited selection of criticism. Citations to the full original source are always given. Material found here may be supplemented by searching for books using CUNY+ and for journal articles and other material by searching various subscription databases and other Web resources.
Literature Resource Center The Literature Resource Center includes biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalist, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. This database is a useful starting point for the study of an author or a literary work, but keep in mind that it contains only selected material. Additional databases and other resources may be consulted to supplement what you find here. The LRC provides access to the Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLA), the most comprehensive listing of scholarly articles and books published in the field of literature. The main page also provides a link to the Literary Index (see below).
Literary Index This Web-based index to many print sets of selected criticism may be accessed from home as well as on campus. This site does not contain the critical materials themselves, but it will direct you to the sets of printed volumes that contain selected, excerpted criticism from both books and journal articles, with full citations to the original sources, which you may wish to consult for further discussion. The Literary Index can be searched by author name or by titles of specific works of literature, including novels, poems, plays, essays, and short stories. The most useful critical series covered by the index are available in the Newman Library:
Black Literature Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PS 153 .N5 B556 1992.
Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 681.5 .C57.
Contemporary Authors. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. Z 1224 .C59-C7 (several series subtitles).
Contemporary Literary Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 771 .C59.
Dictionary of Literary Biography. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 451 .D42.
Drama Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 1601 .D59.
Hispanic Literature Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PQ 7081 .A1 H573 1994.
Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 86 .L53.
Native North American Literature. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PS 508 .I5 N38 1994.
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 761 .N5.
Poetry Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 1010 .P499.
Shakespearean Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PR 2965 .S43.
Short Story Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 3373 .S386.
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 771 .G27.
World Literature Criticism. REFERENCE, 2nd floor: Ref. PN 523 .W67 1992.
Web resources
There are many Web sites that provide information and links for the study of literature and of specific authors (see Literature Resources on the Web). Be aware that literary criticism (as opposed to factual information) is relatively scarce on the Internet compared to what has been published in books and scholarly journals. Do not confine your research to Web resources. Use Internet sites cautiously; learn to evaluate them for reliability and always cite them appropriately (see the useful list of Web-evaluation links on the Literature and Composition Resources page at Frostburg State University).
Bibliographies of published criticism...
Bibliographies are lists (sometimes extensive) of published material on a particular author or literary work. They do not contain criticism, but they will tell you where to find it. Search for the books and/or journals found in them using CUNY+
Individual Author Bibliographies: To see if the library has a published bibliography (or list) of critical sources on an author, do a subject search by the author's name in DPAC (s=last name, first name), and see if the subject guide contains the subheading "bibliography." Bibliographies can lead you to general criticism as well as to discussions of specific works by the author.
Literary Criticism Index 2nd ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1994. Located at the reference desk and in the reference stacks at Ref. Z 6511 .W44 1994, this index covers bibliographies and checklists of criticism that include more than one author. Under an author's name, you will find titles of individual works and coded references to checklists that include criticism of those works. The checklists will contain lists of critical articles or books that you must then locate in the Newman Library. Despite this extra step, this resource can frequently save time in locating criticism of a particular poem, short story, or other literary work, especially when the work is less well-known or less frequently discussed.
DATABASES / ELECTRONIC RESOURCES AT BARUCH
 Zora Neale Hurston (1901-1960). American Novelist. Courtesy of the Estate of Zora Neale Hurston. |
Baruch Subscription Databases - Information Resources Page: The databases listed on the Information Resources Page can be accessed from any Internet-connected workstation on the Baruch campus, and most can be accessed from off campus as well. Details on remote access will be found on the Information Resources page (click "Remote Access" in the blue box on the left).
CUNY+: CUNY+ is the Web-based catalog of the collections of all CUNY libraries. It can be accessed through the Newman Library Web site by selecting "Online Catalog" and following the links to CUNY+. The catalog lists library materials in all formats (books, journals, videos, databases, etc.). You can search all CUNY libraries at once (the CUNY Union Catalog), or you can select an individual library (such as Baruch). CUNY+ can be searched by keyword(s) in the subject, author, title, or ALL fields. A browse search function allows you to search an alphabetical list of titles, authors' names, subjects, etc.
The following resources will be particularly useful for research in literature and related subjects.
CUNY+ CUNY+ is the online catalog of the CUNY library collections. Use CUNY+ to search for books, magazines and journals by title, databases, recordings or videos.
Academic Search Premier Academic Search Premier contains full-text articles from many magazines and journals, with abstracts and indexing for many more. A multi-discipline database designed for academic institutions, it provides good coverage of journals in the humanities, literature, language and linguistics, the arts, and related areas of academic study.
Literature Resource Center The (InfoTrac) Literature Resource Center includes biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalist, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. This database is a useful starting point for the study of an author or a literary work, but keep in mind that it contains only selected material. Additional databases and other resources may be consulted to supplement what you find here. The LRC provides access to the Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLA), the most comprehensive listing of scholarly articles and books published in the field of literature.
Humanities Abstracts Humanities Abstracts cites articles, with abstracts, from English-language periodicals. Topics include Art, Communications, Dance, Film, Folklore, Gender Studies, History, Journalism, Literary & Social Criticism, Literature, Music, Performing Arts, Philosophy and Religion.
JSTOR This full-text database provides extensive back files of a number of important literary journals. Although it includes fewer journals than other indexes, it is worth searching for the back-file coverage.
Project MUSE Currently, Project MUSE offers nearly 250 quality full-text journal titles from 40 scholarly publishers and covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, gender studies, and many others. Use this database as you would JSTOR, not as a first step, but as a supplement to the more inclusive databases listed above. Search results here may be fewer, but many very fine journals are included.
Essay and General Literature Index Essay and General Literature Index contains citations to essays and articles in collections and miscellaneous works published in the U.S., Great Britain and Canada from 1985 on. More than 300 volumes are indexed annually.
LITERATURE RESOURCES ON THE WEB
 Lu Xun (Lu Hsun); (1881-1936). Chinese Fiction Writer, Essayist, Editor, and Translator |
The following Web sites provide links to a wide variety of Internet resources that support the study of literature and related subjects.
Use Web resources cautiously and carefully. Not all are of equal value or authority. For help in evaluating resources on the Web see Guides to Evaluating Internet Resources (part of the Voice of the Shuttle General Humanities Resources Web site). While there is a great deal of useful free information on the Web, it is important to be aware that there is relatively little scholarly analysis (or literary criticism) compared with the vast amount published in books and journals. Do not confine your research to Web resources. (Note: this warning does not include library subscription databases that are Web-based. These are valuable scholarly resources that will be necessary for your research). For further suggestions, consult other sections of this guide.
For assistance in searching the Web on your own, see Search the Web (Voice of the Shuttle), a collection of links to online Web searching help, search engines, multi-search sites, "best" Web site lists, and additional information related to the Web. Another very useful site is Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial provided by the UC Berkeley Library.
*The Voice of the Shuttle The premier humanities site, offering comprehensive collections of resources in literature, linguistics, literary theory, and classical studies, as well as in related areas such as cultural studies, media studies, cyberculture, technology of writing, and gender studies. The "English Literature" page includes American literature, minority literature, and other world literatures written in English. Non-English literatures are included under "Literature (Other)" on the main subject page. There are many links to individual author sites under the appropriate literature heading. Includes useful "Highlights" of especially important sites for each section. Winner of many Web-site awards. Fully searchable. From UC Santa Barbara.
*Literary Resources on the Net Under broad subject categories such as American, Renaissance, and Theory, you will find links to the appropriate Voice of the Shuttle pages, plus additional annotated Internet resources. The site emphasizes English and American literature but it provides a "representative" selection of links in other areas, including "Classical and Biblical Literature," "Ethnicities and Nationalities," and "Other National Literatures." Maintained by Jack Lynch at Rutgers University, this is one of the most comprehensive general literature sites.
*MIT Libraries: Literature Resources This site is devoted primarily to English and American literature, including both scholarly and less academic sites. Links are carefully chosen, and the annotations are helpful.
BUBL Literature and Rhetoric page BUBL is a comprehensive catalog of Internet resources, including selected, evaluated, and annotated lists of resources in literature. The main BUBL subject menu also includes language, linguistics, drama, theater, film studies, journalism, folklore, and writing resources.
Online Literary Criticism Collection A useful site that "contains 4271 critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period. The collection is not inclusive of all the work on the web, nor does it plan to be. The sites are selected with some thought to their overall usefulness." A part of the Internet Public Library Web site.
American Authors on the Web A useful site including many links to individual author resources and an extensive list of "general resources" (less useful because they are not annotated). The author entries are arranged by chronological periods, but names can also be searched using your browser's "find" feature (e.g., in Netscape, click on "Edit" and select "Find in Page"). Newer links are featured under "What's New?" Maintained by Professor Mitsuhara Matsuoka at Nagoya University in Japan.
British and Irish Authors on the Web Another site with useful links to individual author resources. The author entries are arranged by chronological periods, but names can also be searched using your browser's "find" feature (e.g., in Netscape, click on "Edit" and select "Find in Page"). A "What's New?" section highlights recently added links. Maintained by Professor Mitsuhara Matsuoka at Nagoya University in Japan.
American Literature Resources "The links on this site will direct you to the best online material about some widely taught American writers." The sites have been identified and evaluated by teachers of English, who have selected them "based upon teacher and student resource value, navigability, unique features and overall impression." Choose the "American Writing Gateway link" and you will find valuable annotated links to many Web sites devoted to a number of widely-studied American authors. Additional authors and links will be added to the database on a regular basis. The site contains other useful features, such as a literary map of the U.S., a literary timeline, and "Beyond the Core," a section exploring literary works that are often not part of the basic curriculum. Although the site has been produced with teachers in mind, the resources included are very valuable to students as well. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and produced in partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), it is part of the ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's American Collection Web site.
Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color "Voices From the Gaps is a World Wide Web project that focuses on the lives and works of women writers of color in North America....Each author page presents biographical, critical and bibliographical information about the writer as well as images and quotes pertinent to her life and works. Each page includes, in addition, links to other resources on the World Wide Web which contain significant information about that writer. Author pages are organized along a set of four indices: by name, place of birth, significant dates, and ethnic/racial identity.... In addition to the author pages, which represent the heart of this website, there is a list of Related Sites on the World Wide Web which points to general (i.e., not particular to a single author) Web resources that relate to the study of women writers of color." This site was developed at the University of Minnesota.
Yahoo! Literature Page This very popular Web directory has many useful links from its literature page, which is arranged by category and fully searchable.
The EServer (originally the English Server) "The EServer is a unique website where a broad range of scholars, casual readers, artists and writers gather to share and discuss their works." While not primarily a student-oriented site, it provides much useful information for persons who teach or are interested in English and related disciplines, whether as a career or as a vocation. "Related disciplines" are as varied as cultural and gender studies, feminism, film and television, history, art and architecture, music, philosophy, and Web design. There is even a link for vegetarian recipes. Under appropriate broad topics, there are scholarly articles ranging from the esteemed critic Irving Howe's "Black Boys and Native Sons" to an undergraduate honors student's "And a Purple Dinosaur Shall Lead Them: Barney and the Future of Intergenerational Politics." Fully, though not very effectively, searchable. The EServer is now located at the University of Washington.