• Black Drama. Full-text of 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
  
  
• Cambridge Journals Online. CJO indexes includes over 125 specialized journals from renowned research societies and associations in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Each journal in CJO has its own home page with links to the current and back volumes, as well as brief description of the journal's purpose, format, and content.

• Infotrac OneFile. A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, dance, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics. Millions of full-text articles many with images. Updated daily.

• Literature Resource Center. Provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Covers novelists, essayist, poets, journalists, and other writers. Includes links to Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and more.

• Oxford University Press Journals. Oxford University Press is renowned for its literature titles, publishing the top English literature journals.

• Project Muse. Project Muse provides online, worldwide, institutional subscription access to the full-text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences and mathematics.
  
  
• xreferplus. An online reference library that provides access to a selection of reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri,and books of quotations.
  

• Arts and Humanities Search. Records referencing many of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.

• Dissertation Abstracts. Selectively covers masters theses and dissertations including dissertations from North American and Europe. Covers all subject disciplines. Covers 1861 to present and includes abstracts since 1988. Thesis abstracts have been included since 1988. Database is updated monthly.
  
  
• Gale Literary Index. A master index to the major literature products, including literary criticisms. It combines and cross references author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and titles into one source.

Return to the Top of Page

• Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs. by Jean-Charles Seigneuret. Greenwood Press, 2 vols, 1988. The author states that a history of literary motifs and themes is an essential part of a contemporary academic discipline known as thematology or thematics. This dictionary meets an urgent need of the literary-oriented world at large, and especially of the English-speaking community. Location: First Floor, Reference Area, Call number: REF PN 43 .D48.

• Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism. by Chris Murry. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2 vols, 1999. The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide a clear, wide-ranging, and authoritative guide to literary theory and criticism past and present. Location: First Floor, Reference Area, Call number: REF PN 86 E63.
  
• Encyclopedia of the Novel. by Paul Schellinger. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. 2 vols, 1998. Encyclopedia of the Novel will help students, professors, and the avid reader to identify, evaluate, appraise, and perhaps enjoy the defining writers, novels, and themes. This work is a felicitous melding of the interests of the novel-reading multitudes and the critics who analyze the genre. Location: First Floor, Reference Area, Call number: REF PN 41 .E487.

• World Literature and Its Times. by Joyce Moss. Gale Group, 4 vols, 1999. Profiles of notable literary works and the historical events that influenced them. Location: First Floor, Reference Area, Call number: REF PQ 7081 .M625.

Return to the Top of Page

• Anthology of Middle English Literature (1350-1485) Includes comprehensive information on authors such as Sir Thomas Malory, Sir Gawain, and Chaucer, as well as information on medieval plays and lyrics. Provides quotes, biographies, lists of works (electronic versions included), and additional resources such as book reviews, essays, articles, and images.
  
  
  
• Cambridge History of English and American Literature. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature is considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published on writings in the English language. Compiled over fourteen years, from 1907 to 1921, the Cambridge History contains over 303 chapters and11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing. The set encompasses a wide selection of writing on orators, humorists, poets, newspaper columnists, religious leaders, economists, Native Americans, song writers, and even non-English writing, such as Yiddish and Creole.

• Dictionary of Symbolism. Explanations for commonly used symbolism in literature. Searchable.

• Glossary of Literary Theory. Glossary of common terminology used in literary theory, browsable alphabetically by main entry.

• Jack Lynch's Literary Resources on the Internet. Created and maintained by Jack Lynch of Rutgers University. Updated frequently, and contains a vast amount of links for all things literary: classical to theater to feminism to hypertext.

• Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies. A comprehensive resource for Medieval Studies: bibliographies, European cultural studies, pedagogical resources, professional information and organizations, electronic texts, music.

• Library of Southern Literature. This database provides an overview of literature of the American South, a bibliography by the late Robert Bain, the full text of about 70 primary works, and a considerable amount of critical material.
  
  
• Literary Gothic. The Literary Gothic is a Web guide to all things concerned with literary Gothicism, which includes ghost stories, 'classic' Gothic novels and Gothic fiction (1764-1820), and related pre- and post-Gothic and supernaturalist literature written prior to the mid-C20. The goals of this site are two-fold: to collect in one place all links pertaining to the Gothic novel, Gothic fiction, and all other forms of literary Gothicism and subsequent traditions, and to make available texts of important and overlooked early works of Gothic or supernatural interest.

• Literature Webliography. Contains resources for the study of literature and bibliography, library catalogs, newsgroups, periodicals, style guides, electronic books and numerous literary links.

• PAL: Perspectives in American Literature. A Research and Reference Guide - an online version of the volume by Paul P. Reuben. Provides carefully organized collection of resources covering over 300 years of American literature. Arranged by period.
  
  
• Victorian Literature Overview. This extensive site includes not only information on those authors included within the Victorian era, but also provides useful background information about the society at that time. Also included are links to relevant articles from journals of the period, as well contextual links for authors which provide information on the the author's politics, religious beliefs, bibliographies, and symbolism and themes used in their literature. Such links give the user a thorough background to the literature and the authors of the period.

• Voice of the Shuttle (English Literature). This is another excellent site for literary research. Contains general criticisms on authors and specific periods, text archives and other comprehensive resources, journals listservs, newsgroups, english and comparative literature departments page and a course page enumerating courses and syllabi.

• Women and Gender Studies: Literature and Culture Web Sites. Wonderful page with tons of links to full text (British Women Romantic Poets, African-American Women Writers of the 19th Century, among others), criticism, bibliographies, and electronic magazines. By the Women's Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

• World Wide Web Subject Catalog (English and American Literature). Information on various topics in English and American Literature can be found here. This site also contains information on the origin and evolution of fairy tales, european medieval drama as well as numerous sites related to writing. An outstanding resource for lovers of literature.
  

©VSU Library and Media Services 10-12-05.
Gloria Beck, Government Documents Librarian.