American Literature and Literary Analysis
A research guide: books, articles, web sites, & videos
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How to Find Books in the ODU Library: Search in the ODU Library Catalog.
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How to Find Books in Other OhioLINK Libraries:
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Reference Books—A Selection
Reference books provide a good starting point for
your research. Reference items are located in the Library’s Reference
collection, behind the Reference Desk on the top floor of Spangler.
See also these related research
guides: English Literature and Literary Analysis; Drama, Film, Theatre; Poetry;
and Humanities.
Biographies and Bio-Bibliographies
For biographical sketches of the life and
works of authors, as well as lists of works by subject, author, or title, consult
the sources that follow.
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A to Z of American Women Writers. R
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American Fiction, 1900-1950. R 016.813 W893a,
1974
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American National Biography. R 920.073 A512n, 1999 10 volumes
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American Women Writers, 1900-1945. R 810.9 A3593w
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American Writers: Selected Authors. R 810.9 A3594wr v.1-3
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American Women
Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. R 810.9 A3593w, 2000
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Contemporary American Ethnic
Poets: Lives, Works, Sources.
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Contemporary Women
Poets. R 811 C7676w, 1998
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Latina and Latino Voices in Literature. R 016.810 D331l
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Major Writers of America. R 810.82 M649m 2 vol.
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Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers. R
810.9 N714, 1997
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Notable
African-American Writers. R 810.98 N843a, 2006 vols. 1-3
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The
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The Undergraduate's Companion to American Writers
and Their Web Sites. R
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Webster’s Dictionary of American Authors. R 810.9 W399d, 1996
Criticism
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African American
Literary Criticism, 1733 to 2000. R
810.9 A834a, 1999
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American
Literary Scholarship: An Annual. R 016.81 A512li (1998-current year available online via the ODU
Library Catalog)
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American Writers Classics. R 810.9 A3594w
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Critical Companion to John Steinbeck. R 813.52 S819c, 2005
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Drama Criticism. R 809.2 D763 10 vols.
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Nineteenth-Century
Literature Criticism. R 809.034 N714 10 vols.
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Short Story Criticism.
R 809.31 S559 75 volumes
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Twentieth-Century
Literary Criticism. R 809.04 T971t 10 vols.
Dictionaries
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The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. R 422.03
B266d, 1988
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A
Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. R 803 C893d, 1998
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Larousse Dictionary of Literary Characters. R 809.927, 1994
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A Multicultural Dictionary of Literary Terms. R 803 C273m, 1999
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Twentieth-Century
Literary Movements Dictionary. R
Encyclopedias and Handbooks
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American Literature:
The Makers and the Making. R 810.9 B873a, 1973 2 vols.
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Asian American
Literature: Reviews and Criticism of Works by American Writers of Asian
Descent.
R
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Columbia Literary
History of the United States. R 810.9
C726li, 1988
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The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature. R 810.3 E193c, 2001
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Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers. R 810.9896073 E193a, 2007
vols. 1-2
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Encyclopedia of American Literature.
R 810.3 E193a, 2002 3 parts
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Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature. R 809.911 S52e
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Encyclopedia of Literary Modernism. R 809.911 E1951
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Encyclopedia of the Novel. R 809.3003 E197n, 1998 vols. 1-2
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Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era 1760—1850. R 700.414 E197r vols. 1-2
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Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century. R 803 E198w, 1999 4 vols.
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The Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story. R
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The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature. R
810.9920693 G856e, 2005 vols. 1-5
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Harlem
Renaissance: A Gale Critical Companion.
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HarperCollins Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature. R 810.9 H234r, 2002
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Oxford
Companion to African American Literature. 810.8 O98, 1997
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Oxford Companion to American Literature.
R 810.3 H325o, 1995
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Standards for the English Language Arts. R 808.042 N 2133s, 1996
Guides to Specific Authors
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Edith Wharton A to Z: The Essential Guide to the Life and Work. R 813.52
W953e, 1998
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Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Guide to the Life and Work. R 813.52
O484e, 1999
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A
Glossary of Faulkner’s South. R 813.52 F263Br, 1976
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Herman Melville A to
Z. R 813.3 R659h
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Mark Twain A- Z. R 817.4 R1846m
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A William Faulkner Encyclopedia. R 813.52 W6702f
Research Guides
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Literary Research
Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies.
R
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Research Guide for
Undergraduate Students: English and American Literature. R 820.72 B175r
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Undergraduate’s Companion to
American Writers and Their Web Sites. R
Reference Resources Online
Provides
full-text access to many reference resources online, including:
- Merriam
Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature;
- Beacham's
six-volume Research Guide to Biography and Criticism;
- Continuum’s
encyclopedia’s of American, British, and children’s literature;
- The New
Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics and The Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short
Story;
- The Oxford
Illustrated History of English Literature;
The Literary Encyclopedia;
- Masterplots and Masterplots II;Cyclopedia of World
Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary
Characters,
and
Magill's Literary Annual;
- The Harold
Bloom series of over 500 books; and additional resources of information on notable authors of long and short fiction,
poetry, drama, and philosophy.
Masterplots Complete 2000
Full-text. On-campus access only; when
prompted, click Open to access the file. Provides synopses of plays, character
profiles, and brief author biographies including lists of major works.
To access: From the
library homepage, click on Articles in
Databases, then English Language and
Literature.
Full-text. To access Oxford Reference Online, go
to the ODU Library Books
page. Brings
together 100 dictionaries and other reference books in various subjects into
one searchable database. Includes under “Literature” the following: The
Concise
To access: From the library
homepage, click on Books, and select Oxford Reference Online.
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For additional possibilities, click on Quick Reference from the ODU Library
homepage, then under the heading of Resources
by Topic, then choose either Dictionaries
or Encyclopedias.
Full-text Primary
Literature Online
Unless otherwise indicated, follow these steps to access the
databases below: Library homepage > Articles in Databases > English
Language and Literature
Includes 3,000 full-text and fully searchable poems by African
American poets of the 18th and 19th centuries. Users can trace the occurrence of a word or
concept across the works of one poet or the entire database.
American
Poetry
Features 40,000 poems by 200 major American from the 17th to the
early 20th century. A selection of
anthologies is also included.
Contains 440 works of 80
novelists and short-story writers, 1774-1850, and comprises the full texts of
the first editions of American novels and short stories written before 1850 by
authors of significance during their lifetimes.
20th Century African-American Poetry
Works by more than 100
African-American poets, including Audre Lorde, Langston Hughes, Rita Dove, and emerging
poets are included in this database. Biographical profiles accompany each
poet's work.
52,000 poems from collected works
and individual volumes of poetry covering the works of most major
twentieth-century American poets. The database includes the works of most major
twentieth-century American poets, beginning with the traditionalists;
continuing through the modernists, represented by such poets as Wallace
Stevens; and moving on to the contemporary works of the 1990s.
Quick
Reference--Primary Literature
Links to several online resources for primary literature, including The
Complete Works of Shakespeare.
To access: Library homepage > Quick Refernece >
Etexts—Literature
eBooks
Full-text ebook database.
Search among 15,000 ebooks from multiple disciplines, including reference
books, other nonfiction, and fiction Search by keyword, title, or author.
To access: From the library homepage, click on Books, and then select NetLibrary.
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Use an online
research database to find articles in scholarly journals, general magazines,
and newspapers. ·
To access the
databases below, from the Library’s Articles in Databases page, select the English Language
& Literature category, or choose from the A-Z index near the top of
the page. ·
To Help You Search
in the Databases: |
Recommended Databases
Contains peer-reviewed journal coverage from more than 3,400
scholarly publications. Articles and
book reviews covering many academic areas of study, including arts and
literature. Updated daily.
Annual
Bibliography of English Language and Literature
Citations only. Indexes books, articles,
reviews, essays, and critical editions of literary works in English
studies. British, American, and
Commonwealth writing are all represented.
Arts
and Humanities Citation Index (ISI Web of Science)
Citations. Indexes articles from
1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering
select relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science
journals. Note: Not intended as a substitute for a comprehensive subject
database such as Humanities International Complete, which comprehensively indexes journal
articles, books, conference proceedings, and other documents.
Bibliography
of American Literature
Citations only. Indexes 40,000 literary works of 300 American writers from the
Revolution to 1930.
Contemporary
Literary Criticism
Collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each entry
contains a biographical/critical introduction, a list of principal works, and
sources for further study.
Electronic
Journal Center
Presents over 4300 research journals, covering numerous subject areas.
Literary Reference Center
Specifically
designed for public libraries, secondary schools, junior/community colleges,
and undergraduate research. Offers
information on authors and their works from reference works, books, and
literary journals. Includes
plot summaries, synopses and work overviews; articles of literary criticism;
author biographies; full text of literary journals, book reviews, classic and
contemporary poems, classic and contemporary short stories, classic novels;
and author interviews.
MLA
International Bibliography
Citations only. Catalogs books and
articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Information about the libraries that own the
library resources is also included.
Updated 10 times per year.
Finding Periodicals in this Library
Listed below are some education periodicals
available in the ODU Library.