Selected Resources for: English and American Literature
Subject Librarian: Malaika Grant E-Mail: grant044@tc.umn.edu This subject covers: fiction, drama, poetry, essays, writers, literary movements, and criticism. |
Table of Contents
Article Databases and Indexes
* Premier Resources *
MLA International Bibliography ![]() The MLA International Bibliography is a classified listing and subject index of scholarly books and articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics which has been compiled by the Modern Language Association of America since 1926.
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Academic or Scholarly Articles Subject Indexes
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (ISI Web of Science) ![]() AHCI covers arts, humanities, and area studies scholarship. Titles of foreign-language works are translated into English, and abstracts are given in English, thereby simplifying and standardizing searching across languages.
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General Indexes to Magazine, Journal & Newspaper Articles
Academic Search Premier ![]() This resource is licensed by the MINITEX Library Information Network with state appropriations from the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office (MHESO) and the Minnesota Department of Education. The world's largest academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for over 4,600 scholarly (peer-reviewed) publications back to 1975. [ more information ][ |
JSTOR ![]() Full text of academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. JSTOR provides complete journal backruns from the date of initial publication. Note: It does NOT include the most recent 2 to 5 years.
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LexisNexis Academic ![]() LexisNexis Academic is a full text databases for news, business, and legal research. It includes sources for researching accounting, environmental studies, health and medical care, government and politics, people, consumer information, and countries worldwide. Locate company information, including the Hoovers Company Profiles.
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MasterFile Premier ![]() This resource is licensed by the MINITEX Library Information Network with state appropriations from the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office (MHESO) and the Minnesota Department of Education. MasterFILE Premier, designed specifically for public libraries, provides full text for more than 2,000 general periodicals covering a broad range of disciplines including general reference, business, education, health, general science, multi-cultural issues and much more. In addition to the full text, this database provides indexing and abstracts for 2700 titles. This database features: 5,000 full text Magill Book Reviews, 357 reference and travel books including the World Almanac & Book of Facts 2001; full text from 84,074 biographies, 86,132 full text primary source documents, American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags. MasterFILE Premier offers PDF backfiles as far back as 1975. [ more information ][ |
Indexes, Other
Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online ![]() An index to poems in anthologies. It includes 250,000 poetry citations indexed by title, first line, last line, author, subject, and searchable by keyword and by author categories. Also provides biographical entries, bibliographies, anthology descriptors and fulltext versions of poems in the public domain.
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Essay and General Literature Index ![]() Find contents in collected works focusing on humanities and social sciences.
The Libraries' subscription to this resource allows for 4 users at any one time. If you get a busy signal, please wait a few minutes and try accessing the site again. [ more information ][ |
| LitFINDER LitFINDER provides either the full text or a citation to a print source in which to read any of 125,000 poems, 5000 stories, 2800 essays, 1000 plays, and 1800 speeches, with new material added regularly.
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Poem Finder ![]() Covers poetry from antiquity to the present; it contains 500,000 citations for poems by 70,000 authors from 1,800 anthologies, 2,600 single-author collections, and 4,000 periodicals. Contains the full text of some poems online.
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Catalogs and Bibliographies
Bibliographies
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online ![]() Cumulating the annual bibliographies in Shakespeare Quarterly, this database lists books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare published or produced between 1964 and early 2005. The scope is international, including more than 118 languages from around the world. The 102,200 records also cite several hundred thousand additional reviews of books, productions, films, and audio recordings. Search by author, title, subject, keyword, phrase, date, language, publisher, and/or periodical title.
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Catalogs
| MNCAT Classic Search with MNCAT Classic to find books, journals, etc. owned by the library. Search by keyword, subject, title, or author for materials on your topic. MNCAT Classic lacks the faceted searching of MNCAT Plus, but can be easier to use if you already have a good idea of what you're looking for.
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General Reference Sources
Biographical Sources
Biography and Genealogy Master Index ![]() A comprehensive index to more than 12 million biographical sketches in more than 3,400 volumes and editions of current and retrospective reference books, covering over 4 million contemporary and historical figures throughout the world.
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Contemporary Authors ![]() A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields. Provides complete biographical and bibliographical references for more than 100,000 authors in the U.S. and around the world.
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| Dictionary of Literary Biography [print edition] A uniquely valuable resource that provides biographical and extensive bibliographical background information on important literary figures. Use the index in the latest volume.
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Directories
| On-Line Books Page, The A directory of thousands of online books that can be read freely on the internet.
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Encyclopedias
| Benét's reader's Encyclopedia, 4th ed., 1996 Covers literary terms, authors, characters, works, and important events internationally
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| Handbook to Literature, 6th ed., 1992 Brief explanations of literary concepts, terms; outline of literary history
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General Reference Works
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism, The ![]() The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism provides 226 alphabetically arranged entries on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography with extensive cross-referencing with hyperlinks.
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Oxford Reference Online ![]() This resource brings together 100 language and subject dictionaries
and reference works - containing well over 60,000 pages - into a single cross-searchable resource.
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Handbooks and Manuals
| Oxford Companion to American Literature Entries for authors, works, literary schools and movements, literary awards, literary societies, scholarly organizations, anthologies, newspapers and magazines, book collectors, printers, etc. For online version, use the Oxford Reference Online listed below.
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| Oxford Companion to English Literature Entries for literary authors, works, critics, terminology, nonliterary figures, and important periodicals. For online version, use Oxford Reference Online listed below.
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| Reference Guide for English Studies Comprehensive guide to primary, secondary, and reference sources
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Literary Authors
Literature Criticism Online Digital Archive ![]() This product includes ten core literature reference series (Contemporary Literary Criticism, 20th Century Literary Criticism, Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism, Literature Criticism 1400-1800, Classical and Mediaeval Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, Drama Criticism, Children's Literature Review). Each CIC institution holds print copies of most of these series, and most libraries hold annual subscriptions allowing electronic access to newly published material. The content is targeted to support undergraduates, and the CIC agreement includes access for the campuses in Duluth, Morris and Crookston.
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Internet Resources
Gateways & Megasites
| Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Collection, The Directs you to websites for criticism and biographical information about writers.
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| Literary Resources on the Net A collection of links to web sites dealing with all aspects of literature--especially English and American.
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Primary Source Materials
Historical Documents
Full Text Resources for English and American Literary Studies ![]() The collections of literary texts owned or leased by the University Libraries provide online access to thousands of literary texts.
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Style Manuals and Writing Guides
Bibliography Software
RefWorks: Personal Citation Manager ![]() RefWorks is a web-based citation manager that allows you to create your own databases of citations by importing references from MNCAT and other databases, and then in seconds automatically generate bibliographies in all major styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago, etc.).
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Style Manuals
| Bibliographic Formats and Descriptions Provides citation format samples from major style guides: the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers; Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA); compiled by the University of Houston Libraries.
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| MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers [ more information ][ |
Library Information
Primary Subject Location
Wilson Library
Wilson Library houses the main humanities and social sciences collections of the University Libraries.
Campus: West Bank, Minneapolis Campus
Address: 309 19th Ave. S.
Telephone: Reference: 612-626-2227; Circulation: 612-624-3321
Main URL: http://wilson.lib.umn.edu/
Reference URL: http://infopoint.lib.umn.edu/
Map URL: http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/OMWL/index.html
Hours URL: http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/collections/wilson/hours
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