LibGuides: ENGL 230: Exploring Literature: Research Sources

Research Sources

Use these databases to search for literary criticism, theory, and author biographies related to your pieces of fiction. Try searching for the name name of the work (in quotes), the author's name for biographies, and/or keywords relating to the themes of your research question.

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
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Full-text access to biographies, bibliographies, literary criticism and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods, and from around the world. 5 simultaneous users Terms of Use
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to journal articles, books, and dissertations published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Coverage is international and subjects include literature, language and linguistics, literary theory, dramatic arts, folklore, and film.
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
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Full-text library of poetry and prose fiction from almost every period and genre of English literature. Includes full-text literary criticism and reference sources. Coverage: 7th century-present. 4 simultaneous users
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These databases will be especially useful for finding articles related to everyday life, politics, and historical events during the time periods you're studying.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Online access to core scholarly journals in business, education, health, arts & humanities, life sciences, literature, physical sciences, and social sciences. Coverage begins with the first issue of each journal.
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Includes: Arts & Sciences 1-15, Business 2-4, & Life Sciences
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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For Optimal Performance, use Firefox or Edge. Full-text access to current content from high quality, peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences, including literature and criticism, history, visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and economics. Coverage varies.
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History Reference Source This link opens in a new window
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Provides full text from more than 1,620 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books, more than 150 leading history periodicals, nearly 57,000 historical documents, more than 78,000 biographies of historical figures, more than 113,000 historical photos and maps, and more than 80 hours of historical video.
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You might want to include additional primary historical documents (such as letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, photographs, etc.) to supplement your secondary research (articles, criticism, etc.) in your final essay. These sources will help with that.

For even more historical documents see our Online Primary Sources Guide

19th Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Digital facsimile images of full pages and clipped articles for hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers. Each issue is captured cover-to-cover with access to every article, advertisement and illustration.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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Historic American newspapers from ProQuest: Civil War Era, the Michigan Chronicle, the Christian Science Monitor, New York Tribune/ Herald Tribune,, Pittsburg Post-Gazette, historic British newspapers The Guardian and the Observer, and historic Black newspapers Chicago Defender, Los Angeles Sentinel, New York Amsterdam News.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) This link opens in a new window
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A primary source collections of the "long" nineteenth century. Content includes monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more.
Current collections include: Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; British Politics and Society; British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture; Children's Literature and Childhood; Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest; European Literature, 1790-1840: the Corvey Collection; Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature; Photography: the World Through the Lens; Religion, Spirituality, Reform and Society; Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925, Parts I & II; and Women: Transnational Networks.
New York Times (1851-3 years ago) with Index (1851-1993) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to the New York Times online for the years 1851-three years ago. This database offers full-page-images and article images. Digital reproductions of every page from every issue, cover to cover, in downloadable PDF files.
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You can also use these resources to find information related to your group presentation topics (ex. "point of view", "exposition" or "setting"). Literary Reference Center will be especially useful if you need to brush up on what these terms mean.

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
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Online edition of accepted authority and guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of words in the English language. Provides comprehensive etymological analysis and listing of variant spellings while tracing the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations.

Glossary of Literary Terms

The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms by Chris Baldick
Publication Date: 2008
eBook
A New Handbook of Literary Terms by David Mikics
Publication Date: 2007
eBook

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