UVM Libraries

Literature (in English) Subject Guide

Full-text

Major Reference Works

General Sources

For an overview of a topic, an explanation of unfamiliar terms, or brief factual information on authors, genres, etc. Some of the sources listed below provide general coverage, while others are more subject specific.

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia
REF PN 41 .B4 1996

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
REF PR 85 .C29 1993

Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English
REF PR 111 .C36 1999

Critical Survey of Long Fiction (8 volumes)
REF PN 3451 .C75 2000

Critical Survey of Poetry. English Language Series  (8 volumes)
REF PR 502 .C85 1992

Critical Survey of Short Fiction (7 volumes)
REF PN 3321 .C7 2001

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2 volumes)
REF PR 9080 .A52 E53 1994

Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion [Remote access - UVM Only]

Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present
REF PR 111 .F45 1990

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama (5 volumes)
REF PN 1625 .M3 1984

Middle English Compendium
Provides access to and interconnectivity between three major Middle English electronic resources: an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary, a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.

Native American Literatures: An Encyclopedia of Works, Characters, Authors, and Themes
REF PS 153 .I52 W47 1999

New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
REF PN 1021 .N39 1993

Oxford Companion to African-American Literature
REF PS 153 .N5 O96 1997
Electronic: Concise Oxford Companion to African-American Literature [Remote access - UVM Only]

Oxford Companion to American Literature
REF PS 21 .H3 1995
Electronic: Oxford Companion to American Literature [Remote access - UVM Only]

Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature
REF PS 8015 .O93 1997
Electronic: Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature [Remote access - UVM Only]

Oxford Companion to English Literature
REF PR 19 .O94 2000
Electronic: Oxford Companion to English Literature [Remote access - UVM Only]

Oxford Companion to Irish Literature
REF PR 8706 .O88 1996

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature (4 volumes)
REF PS 21 .E537 2004
Electronic: Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature [Remote access - UVM Only]

Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature [Remote access - UVM Only]

Oxford English Dictionary
REF PE 1625 .O87 1989 (20 volumes)
REF PE 1625 .O92 1993 (3 volumes)
Electronic: Oxford English Dictionary [Remote access - UVM Only]
Guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, tracing the usage of words from across the English-speaking world through quotations from international English language sources. The electronic version can be searched in a variety of ways: by word; phrase; definition; etymology; by author of the quotations which shows how the use of a word has changed over time.

Oxford Reference Online-English Language Reference [Remote access - UVM Only]
Online ready reference sources covering topics such as grammar and usage, published by Oxford University Press.

Oxford Reference Online-Literature   [Remote access - UVM Only]
Online ready reference literature sources published by Oxford University Press, including the Oxford Companion to ---- Literature titles.

Shakespeare

Complete and Systematic Concordance to the Works of Shakespeare (6 volumes)
REF PR 2892 .S66 1968

Dictionary of Shakespeare
REF PR 2892 .M33 2000
Electronic: Dictionary of Shakespeare [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]

Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
PR 2892 .O94 2001
Electronic: Oxford Companion to Shakespeare [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]

Plays of Shakespeare: A Thematic Guide
REF PR 2987 .C28 2001

Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide
REF  Z 8811 .B44 1995

Shakespearean Criticism : Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations (multi-volume)
REF PR 2965 .S43  
Selected criticism in these volumes may also be found full-text in the Literature Resource Center.

William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume
REF PN 41 .D42 v.263

William Shakespeare: His World, His Work, His Influence  (3 volumes)
REF PR 2976 .W5354 1985

Literary Terms & Theory

Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory / Cuddon
REF PN 41 .C83 1991

Glossary of Literary Terms / Abrams
REF PN 44.5 .A2 1999

Handbook to Literature
REF PN 41 .H355 2000
Dictionary of places, groups, movements, critical terms, genres, periods, character types, and other literary terms associated with English and American literature. Does not include biographies, plot summaries or characters.

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
REF PN 81 .J554 2005
Entries consider critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.

Biography

[See also Literature Resource Center in the section "Indexes, Abstracts, and Full-Text Databases" below.]

African American Writers (2 volumes)
REF PS 153 .N5 A344 2001

American Writers; A Collection of Literary Biographies (multi-volume)
REF PS 129 .A55  
Compilation of scholarly essays about American writers from the 17th century to the present. Each contains an account of the life, a discussion of style and literary contributions and a bibliography of works by and about the author.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]
Index to biographical sketches in current and retrospective reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world. Search the library catalog by title to see if UVM Libraries owns the cited reference book.

British Writers (multi-volume)
REF PR 85 .B688  
Compilation of scholarly essays about British writers from the 14th century to the present. Each contains an account of the life, a discussion of style and literary contributions and a bibliography of works by and about the author.

Caribbean Writers : A Bio-Bibliographical-Critical Encyclopedia
REF PN 849. C3 C3 1979

Companion to African Literatures
REF PR 9340 .C65 2000

Contemporary Authors; A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television and Other Fields 
see Literature Resource Center
Presents short biographies of 20th-century authors in all fields. Emphasizes living writers who write in English, but includes foreign writers whose works have been translated into English, and many persons who died since 1900.

Dictionary of Literary Biography 
see Literature Resource Center
Presents career biographies of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods. 

Fifty Caribbean Writers : A Bio-Bibliographical-Critical Sourcebook
REF PR 9205 .A52 F54 1986

International Literature in English : Essays on the Major Writers
REF PR 9080 .I57 1991

Native North American Literature : Biographical and Critical information on Native Writers and Orators from the United States and Canada from Historical Times to the Present   
REF PS 508 .I5 N38 1994

Indexes, Abstracts, and Full-Text Databases

Primary Indexes, Abstracts and Full-Text Databases

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (via Web of Science) [Remote access - UVM Only]
Multidisciplinary index to the journal literature (articles, bibliographies, editorials, letters, reviews) of the arts and humanities. Note that the cited reference field at the end of most records lists references to works cited by the document's author. Coverage: 1982–present.

Literature Criticism Online-Poetry [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]  
Provides full-text access to Gales's Poetry Criticism. Offers centuries of analysis from both scholarly and popular literature. Designed as a complement to Literature Resource Center.

Literature Resource Center [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]  
Provides full-text access to English-language biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and discipline.  Also provides access to several general literature handbooks and encyclopedias.

MLA International Bibliography [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]
(Previous title: MLA American Bibliography of Books...  1921-1955)
REF Z 7006 .M67 1921–2004
Electronic coverage: 1926–present.
Annual bibliography noted for its international coverage of literary and linguistic scholarship. From 1921 to 1955, MLA contained writings by Americans on the literatures of various countries. Since 1956 it has included writers in other languages. MLA contains citations to multi-language journal articles, books, essays, working papers, proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies covering:

• National Literatures: literary periods; genres; individual authors/individual works
• Linguistics
• General Literature: literary movements; literary theory; genres, etc.
• Folklore
• Film
• Teaching approaches/methods (literature, rhetoric, composition)

Secondary Indexes, Abstracts and Full-Text Databases

Academic Search Premier  [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]   Coverage: @1969–present (date varies by publication).
and
Expanded Academic ASAP  [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]   Coverage: 1980–present.
Both are interdisciplinary indexes to journal articles and partially full-text database that includes many references and full-text articles on literature topics, including book reviews. 

America: History and Life [Remote access - ­ UVM Only]
Indexes and abstracts information on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Indexes articles from journals as well as book reviews, film reviews, and the abstracts of dissertations. Coverage: 1954–present.

Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry
(Previous title: Granger's Index to Poetry )
REF PN 1022 .G7
Title and first-line, selective last-line, author, and subject index to thousands of English-language poems (with an emphasis on established writers) in the most accessible anthologies.  It is also valuable for identifying poems on a topic. The current edition is not fully cumulative, so earlier editions may need to be consulted.
 
Historical Abstracts [Remote access -­ UVM Only]
Indexes and abstracts information on the history of the world from 1450 to the present, excluding the United States and Canada. Includes citations to journal articles as well as books and dissertations. Coverage: 1954–present.

Short Story Index
REF Z 5917 .S5 C6  1900/49-present
Author, title, and subject index to short stories published in anthologies. The coverage emphasizes established authors. All volumes of this index may need to be consulted since they are not cumulative.

Electronic Journal and Electronic Text Collections

University of Vermont Electronic Journals in Language and Literature

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts  
http://www.infomotions.com/alex/
Collection of public domain electronic texts and documents from American and English literature, and Western philosophy, that can be browsed by author, title and date.

American Verse Project
http://www.hti.umich.edu/a/amverse/
Electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920. Part of the Humanities Text Initiative at the University of Michigan.

Complete Works of Shakespeare
http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html (Moby ed.)
http://www.bartleby.com/70/ (Oxford University Press, 1914 ed.)

Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse
Part of the Middle English Compendium. This collection of Middle English texts was assembled from works contributed by University of Michigan faculty and from texts provided by the Oxford Text Archive, as well as works created specifically for the Corpus by the Humanities Text Initiative.

Electronic Poetry Center  
http://epc.buffalo.edu/
Selection of contemporary American poetry by author (plus biographical information on authors).

Electronic Text Center ­ University of Virginia (UVA)
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/languages/english/
Online archive of electronic texts and images that is especially strong in American literature. Note: some resources are restricted to UVA affiliates only.

Internet Public Library: Online Texts Collection
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/
Contains thousands of titles that can be browsed by author, title, or broad topic. Titles can also be searched by keywords.

JSTOR [Remote access - UVM Only]
Electronic archive for journal backfiles, which permits detailed searches of thousands of issues of scholarly journals back to the 19th century. Issues published within the last 2-5 years are generally not covered. The purpose of JSTOR is to provide access to back issues of journals, not current issues. Note: no access is provided to full-text articles from a journal that UVM does not subscribe to.

On-Line Books Page
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
Metasite that serves as an index to thousands of books (English or English translation) on the Internet. There is a link to a list of large, general-purpose Internet collections with substantial English-language listings.

Project Bartleby Archive
http://www.bartleby.com/
Extensive collection of  electronic texts of  fiction, poetry and essays in English, as well as selected reference works. Features a full-text searchable database.

Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog
Extensive collection of  electronic texts of (mostly) public domain works. Searchable by author, title, and Library of Congress classification.

Project Muse [Remote access - UVM Only]
Electronic collection of  journals published by major university presses in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. Year coverage is generally for the last 4-5 years.  Note: no access is provided to full-text articles from a journal that UVM does not subscribe to.

Representative Poetry On-Line(University of Toronto)
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display/index.cfm
Anthology of English language poetry (U.K., U.S., Canada), by 500 poets from Caedmon, in the Old English period, to the work of living poets today. 

Wright American Fiction
A collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875.  Almost 1,500 writers are represented.

Recommended Web Sites

BUBL LINK: 800 Literature and Rhetoric
http://bubl.ac.uk/Link/linkbrowse.cfm?menuid=10942 
British-based catalog of Internet resources which are selected, evaluated, cataloged and described.

Contemporary Postcolonial & Postimperial Literature in English
http://www.postcolonialweb.org
Links to information about authors, history, politics and religion from Africa, Australia, India, Singapore, Canada, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom.

Internet Public Library: Online Literary Criticism
http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/
Collection contains selected critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period.

Librarians' Index to the Internet: Literature and Books
http://lii.org/search/file/literature
Point of access for reliable, librarian-selected Internet resources on literature and books.

Literary Resources on the Net  
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/
List of links to Web sites for authors and movements. Primarily English/American literature; there is also a page for "Other National Literatures."

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
Annotated guide to scholarly Shakespeare resources on the Internet.

PAL: Perspectives in American Literature A Research and Reference Guide
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/home.htm
Research and reference guide to various literary periods and authors in American Literature. Lists biographies, bibliographies, and study guides for a large number of American writers.

Victorian Web
http://www.victorianweb.org
Links to information about literature, history, and culture in the Victorian age.

Voice of the Shuttle: Literature (in English)
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=3
Detailed list of links to sites for authors and movements, organized by time-period and/or genre.

Professional Organizations

Style Manuals

Chicago Manual of Style
REF (Ready Ref) Z 253 .U69 2003
http://www.wisc.edu/writetest/Handbook/DocChicago.html

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
REF (Ready Ref) LB 2369 .G53 2003
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
Standard guide for undergraduate students in the humanities offers guidance in all aspects of writing a paper, from choosing a topic, using the library and the Internet, and producing an outline, to preparing citations using the MLA documentation style, for print and electronic works.

MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing
REF (Ready Ref)  PN 147 .G444 1998
Standard guide for graduate students and scholars in the humanities includes chapters on: the publication process, with advice for those seeking to publish their articles or books; legal issues; stylistic conventions and the preparation of manuscripts, theses, and dissertations;  the MLA documentation style, for print and electronic works.



Last updated: January 15, 2008

By: Patricia Mardeusz