English Literature & Language
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- English Literature: Books--Media--Web Sites
- American Literature: Books--Media--Web Sites
- Literary Theory: Books--Media--Web Sites
- English Language: Books--Media--Web Sites
- Teaching English: Web Sites
Note: The databases below allow you to search by topic for articles in thousands of newspapers, magazines, and journals. If you wish to see full-text availability for a particular publication, use the Journal Titles search on the Library home page. You can also use the following links to browse full-text journals in English literature, American literature, and the English Language.
Literature Online (LION) with MLA ) combines access to the two largest indexes of language and literature resources: the Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB) and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL). It also contains over 350,000 full text works of fiction, drama and poetry, as well as a library of online reference resources
Tips:
The "Author" search from the home page will display the full range of available materials-- works by the author, reference resources about the author (including biographies, bibliographies, and Web sites), and literary criticism of the author's work. But don't use the "Criticism" link here--it retrieves EVERYTHING.
For literary criticism use the "Criticism & Reference" search from the home page. This opens a very abbreviated search screen, so for better search options switch from the default "All" to just "Criticism."
LION is one of the few databases where you can enter the title of any literary work as a Subject search--guaranteeing that the articles retrieved will provde sustained discussion. Don't settle for searching title or author in the Keyword slot.
If you wish to add topical Keywords to a Subject search, first uncheck the box that says "include journal full text in keyword search." Searching for your Keywords in all available full text usually results in many retrievals that merely mention your terms in passing. Only check this box if you're not getting enough hits without it.
For the most sophisticated search options, limit your search to the "MLAIB Search" and from there scroll down and choose the "Advanced search options."
MLA International Bibliography (Chadwyck-Healey) is accessible through Literature Online (see above) but some people find this "Advanced" interface clearer and easier to navigate.
Tips:
Because it is so large and international, setting search limits can help focus your results. Note that you can enter a "Language of Publication" (worth doing if you read only English) and "Limit" your search to "Journal articles" and/or "Book articles" (if you leave the default on "All," you may retrieve a lot of pesky dissertation abstracts.
There is no full text here, but the ArticleLInker (green arrow) link after each citation will connect you to any full text available from another IC database or alert you to a print copy in the IC Library.
The most useful searches will be “Author’s Work”—essentially a Subject search on a poem, play, short story, or novel title—and “Author as Subject.”
Be sure to take a look at the “Advanced Search” options (the link is right above the first Keyword search slot). In Advanced Search you can search by “Genre,” “Literary Theme,” Literary Influence” (people and things that influenced the author you’re researching), and “Literary Source” (the influence the author you’re researching has had on others).
Note that when entering a Subject, Genre, Literary Theme, Literary Influence, or Literary Source search, there is a “Thesaurus” link to the right of each slot where you can check to see what terms the MLA Bibliography uses.
Literature Compass: Not a database but "an online-only journal publishing peer-reviewed survey articles of the most important research and current thinking from across the entire discipline." You will find this resource especially useful for its survey articles on recent critical trends in all major periods.
From the journal's home page you can enter database-type Title, Author, and Keyword searches. Just click the "Online Link" from the IC Library catalog record and then the "2003-2010" link on the EBSCO host page.
Note: The IC English Department's Michael Twomey is on the editorial board for the Medieval period and Dan Breen for the Renaissance.
JSTOR has excellent 100% full-text coverage of literary scholarship. There is no Subject searching, so remember to put titles and authors' names in quotation marks to search them as Keyword phrases--and leave authors' names in the normal first-name last-name order. Set "Limit" to "Article"--or else you may unleash an avalanche of reviews of books on your topic.
JSTOR access to journal articles begins 2-4 years prior to the present--so don't look for any criticism from the last couple of years--but coverage always extends back to the first issue of each journal--in some cases into the 19th century and beyond.
Project Muse , although a smaller database, it complements JSTOR. LIke JSTOR it provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the last 10-15 years. Muse uses a "black box" search approach--you enter your search terms in one slot with no designated field options--but in addition to slapping in keywords, you can use the same Library of Congress Subject Headings that work in the Library catalog (see above under "Subject Searches"). This broad approach to searching tends to generate large retrievals, so it's best to be as specific as possible. And note--once you have a retrieval set, you can add more search terms by clicking "Modify Search" at the top.
ProQuest Research Library & Academic Search Premier are comprehensive databases and include considerable literary criticism--much of it full text. In running searches on authors, don't settle for a Keyword search on the author's name, as this will retrieve too many articles in which the author is only mentioned in passing. Instead use the specialized Subject search each provides.
In ProQest enter the author's name, last name first, in the "Person" slot.
In Academic Search Premier open the "Select a Field" drop down menu and search the author's name, last name first, in the "People" field.
In both databases the titles of literary works must be searched as Keyword phrases, so be sure to put them in quotation marks.
In both databases you can set a "Document Type" limit to "Interview"--if it's a contemporary writer. And for a contemporary writer you might also try an "Author" search, since many writers publish criticism and social commentary that might shed light on their creative work.
General OneFile is another comprehensive database with considerable literary criticism, but the default Subject search forcess you to retrieve EVERYTHING on a particular author. The standard "subdivisions" by which General OneFile organizes these results--"Ethical Aspects," Political Aspects," "Social Aspects"--are broad in respect to authors. So--
If you wish to focus on a specific literary work, open "Advanced Search" and in the "Select Index" box choose "Named Work": this allows you to run a Subject search on a title.
If you wish to focus on a particular a theme, the best strategy is to open all the results from the initial Subject search on the author and then use the the "Search within these Results" slot at the upper left to enter thematic Keywords.
PsycINFO & SocINDEX with Full Text : As the names suggest, these are good resources for articles on authors and literary works from a psychological or sociological perspective.
ERIC (Ebsco interface) is an Education database where you can find many scholarly articles on the interpretation and teaching of literary texts at the levels of both secondary and higher education.
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance with Full Text : A specialized resource for dramatic literature, playwrights, and the theater. Play titles may be searched as "Subject Terms" here--and you should take advantage of this. Searching a play title as a Subject guarantees that the articles retrieved will be substantially about the the play. For example,a Keyword search on Hamlet retrieves about 2200 articles, whereas a Subject search retrieves about 700. The Subject search eliminates 1500 articles that mention but are not primarily about Hamlet.
If you wish to focus on reviews of a theater piece, search the title in the "Reviews and Products" field.
Theatre in Video : No articles here, but streaming video of stage productions and movie adaptations. "Productions" represent all eras, from The Agamemnon & Oedipus Rex to Twelfth Night & The Alchemist to She Stoops to Conquer & Tartuffe to Krapp's Last Tape & To be Young, Gifted and Black. Also browse the "Documentaries" which include videos on the Renaissance Stage, Restoration Theater, and Kabuki or interviews with Arthur Miller, Lee Strasberg, Tennessee Williams, and John Gielgud.
Note: Theater in Video requires Flash Player v.8 or higher and a minimum of 400kbps of bandwidth.Also note: a limit of 5 simultaneous users.
ebrary is IC's database of 70,000 full text online books. Authors and their work are often discussed in books that are not primarily literary criticism, and so full-text Keyword searching becomes a real advantage. Run a Keyword search on an author and a work--remembering to put multi-word titles in quotation marks. When browsing a particular book, note that you can run a Keyword search in the slot next to the "Search Document" button. Your search terms will display in purple, and all you have to do is keep clicking the question-mark-with-right-pointing-arrow button at the top to fast forward through all the pages on which one of your search terms appears.
New York Times (1851-2009) offers the full text of the New York Times from 1851 up to 2006, so you can access contemporary reviews of Twain, Tennyson, Hemingway, and Joyce. Enter a Keyword search, putting phrases in quotation marks. You might begin by searching in the “Citation and Abstract” field, then, if this doesn’t yield enough results, expand to the default “Citation and document text” field.
Twayne's Authors Series provides full-text online books on individual authors featuring criticism more sophisticated than Cliff Notes, but far less ambitious than most of the literary scholarship published in peer-reviewed journals. Good for a quick review of characters, plots, and the interpretively obvious.
You can use the the quick keyword search slot and retrieve everything--chapters, reference entries, entire books--all jumbled up, or under "Select a Publication Below" you can click "Show All" for a complete list of just the books. These are in alphabetical order by title, so that the volume on All's Well That Ends Well is under A, as you would expect, and the volume on George Bernard Shaw is under G--for the first title word George--rather than S for Shaw.
Tips:
The "Author" search from the home page will display the full range of available materials-- works by the author, reference resources about the author (including biographies, bibliographies, and Web sites), and literary criticism of the author's work. But don't use the "Criticism" link here--it retrieves EVERYTHING.
For literary criticism use the "Criticism & Reference" search from the home page. This opens a very abbreviated search screen, so for better search options switch from the default "All" to just "Criticism."
LION is one of the few databases where you can enter the title of any literary work as a Subject search--guaranteeing that the articles retrieved will provde sustained discussion. Don't settle for searching title or author in the Keyword slot.
If you wish to add topical Keywords to a Subject search, first uncheck the box that says "include journal full text in keyword search." Searching for your Keywords in all available full text usually results in many retrievals that merely mention your terms in passing. Only check this box if you're not getting enough hits without it.
For the most sophisticated search options, limit your search to the "MLAIB Search" and from there scroll down and choose the "Advanced search options."
MLA International Bibliography (Chadwyck-Healey) is accessible through Literature Online (see above) but some people find this "Advanced" interface clearer and easier to navigate.
Tips:
Because it is so large and international, setting search limits can help focus your results. Note that you can enter a "Language of Publication" (worth doing if you read only English) and "Limit" your search to "Journal articles" and/or "Book articles" (if you leave the default on "All," you may retrieve a lot of pesky dissertation abstracts.
There is no full text here, but the ArticleLInker (green arrow) link after each citation will connect you to any full text available from another IC database or alert you to a print copy in the IC Library.
The most useful searches will be “Author’s Work”—essentially a Subject search on a poem, play, short story, or novel title—and “Author as Subject.”
Be sure to take a look at the “Advanced Search” options (the link is right above the first Keyword search slot). In Advanced Search you can search by “Genre,” “Literary Theme,” Literary Influence” (people and things that influenced the author you’re researching), and “Literary Source” (the influence the author you’re researching has had on others).
Note that when entering a Subject, Genre, Literary Theme, Literary Influence, or Literary Source search, there is a “Thesaurus” link to the right of each slot where you can check to see what terms the MLA Bibliography uses.
Literature Compass: Not a database but "an online-only journal publishing peer-reviewed survey articles of the most important research and current thinking from across the entire discipline." You will find this resource especially useful for its survey articles on recent critical trends in all major periods.
From the journal's home page you can enter database-type Title, Author, and Keyword searches. Just click the "Online Link" from the IC Library catalog record and then the "2003-2010" link on the EBSCO host page.
Note: The IC English Department's Michael Twomey is on the editorial board for the Medieval period and Dan Breen for the Renaissance.
JSTOR has excellent 100% full-text coverage of literary scholarship. There is no Subject searching, so remember to put titles and authors' names in quotation marks to search them as Keyword phrases--and leave authors' names in the normal first-name last-name order. Set "Limit" to "Article"--or else you may unleash an avalanche of reviews of books on your topic.
JSTOR access to journal articles begins 2-4 years prior to the present--so don't look for any criticism from the last couple of years--but coverage always extends back to the first issue of each journal--in some cases into the 19th century and beyond.
Project Muse , although a smaller database, it complements JSTOR. LIke JSTOR it provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the last 10-15 years. Muse uses a "black box" search approach--you enter your search terms in one slot with no designated field options--but in addition to slapping in keywords, you can use the same Library of Congress Subject Headings that work in the Library catalog (see above under "Subject Searches"). This broad approach to searching tends to generate large retrievals, so it's best to be as specific as possible. And note--once you have a retrieval set, you can add more search terms by clicking "Modify Search" at the top.
ProQuest Research Library & Academic Search Premier are comprehensive databases and include considerable literary criticism--much of it full text. In running searches on authors, don't settle for a Keyword search on the author's name, as this will retrieve too many articles in which the author is only mentioned in passing. Instead use the specialized Subject search each provides.
In ProQest enter the author's name, last name first, in the "Person" slot.
In Academic Search Premier open the "Select a Field" drop down menu and search the author's name, last name first, in the "People" field.
In both databases the titles of literary works must be searched as Keyword phrases, so be sure to put them in quotation marks.
In both databases you can set a "Document Type" limit to "Interview"--if it's a contemporary writer. And for a contemporary writer you might also try an "Author" search, since many writers publish criticism and social commentary that might shed light on their creative work.
General OneFile is another comprehensive database with considerable literary criticism, but the default Subject search forcess you to retrieve EVERYTHING on a particular author. The standard "subdivisions" by which General OneFile organizes these results--"Ethical Aspects," Political Aspects," "Social Aspects"--are broad in respect to authors. So--
If you wish to focus on a specific literary work, open "Advanced Search" and in the "Select Index" box choose "Named Work": this allows you to run a Subject search on a title.
If you wish to focus on a particular a theme, the best strategy is to open all the results from the initial Subject search on the author and then use the the "Search within these Results" slot at the upper left to enter thematic Keywords.
PsycINFO & SocINDEX with Full Text : As the names suggest, these are good resources for articles on authors and literary works from a psychological or sociological perspective.
ERIC (Ebsco interface) is an Education database where you can find many scholarly articles on the interpretation and teaching of literary texts at the levels of both secondary and higher education.
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance with Full Text : A specialized resource for dramatic literature, playwrights, and the theater. Play titles may be searched as "Subject Terms" here--and you should take advantage of this. Searching a play title as a Subject guarantees that the articles retrieved will be substantially about the the play. For example,a Keyword search on Hamlet retrieves about 2200 articles, whereas a Subject search retrieves about 700. The Subject search eliminates 1500 articles that mention but are not primarily about Hamlet.
If you wish to focus on reviews of a theater piece, search the title in the "Reviews and Products" field.
Theatre in Video : No articles here, but streaming video of stage productions and movie adaptations. "Productions" represent all eras, from The Agamemnon & Oedipus Rex to Twelfth Night & The Alchemist to She Stoops to Conquer & Tartuffe to Krapp's Last Tape & To be Young, Gifted and Black. Also browse the "Documentaries" which include videos on the Renaissance Stage, Restoration Theater, and Kabuki or interviews with Arthur Miller, Lee Strasberg, Tennessee Williams, and John Gielgud.
Note: Theater in Video requires Flash Player v.8 or higher and a minimum of 400kbps of bandwidth.Also note: a limit of 5 simultaneous users.
ebrary is IC's database of 70,000 full text online books. Authors and their work are often discussed in books that are not primarily literary criticism, and so full-text Keyword searching becomes a real advantage. Run a Keyword search on an author and a work--remembering to put multi-word titles in quotation marks. When browsing a particular book, note that you can run a Keyword search in the slot next to the "Search Document" button. Your search terms will display in purple, and all you have to do is keep clicking the question-mark-with-right-pointing-arrow button at the top to fast forward through all the pages on which one of your search terms appears.
New York Times (1851-2009) offers the full text of the New York Times from 1851 up to 2006, so you can access contemporary reviews of Twain, Tennyson, Hemingway, and Joyce. Enter a Keyword search, putting phrases in quotation marks. You might begin by searching in the “Citation and Abstract” field, then, if this doesn’t yield enough results, expand to the default “Citation and document text” field.
Twayne's Authors Series provides full-text online books on individual authors featuring criticism more sophisticated than Cliff Notes, but far less ambitious than most of the literary scholarship published in peer-reviewed journals. Good for a quick review of characters, plots, and the interpretively obvious.
You can use the the quick keyword search slot and retrieve everything--chapters, reference entries, entire books--all jumbled up, or under "Select a Publication Below" you can click "Show All" for a complete list of just the books. These are in alphabetical order by title, so that the volume on All's Well That Ends Well is under A, as you would expect, and the volume on George Bernard Shaw is under G--for the first title word George--rather than S for Shaw.
Few databases offer 100% full text. Most retrieve a mix of full text articles and article "citations"--article title, author(s), publication info, and usually an "abstract" or one-prargraph summary of the content. When a citation makes you want the full text, look below it for this icon:
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
- "GETIT" will usually find the full text in another database and open it in a new window.
- If none of our databases can access the full text but we have a print subsciption to the journal, "GETIT" will retrieve the Library catalog record for the journal so that you can see if the date of the article falls within the date range we have on hand.
- If full text is not available from any database or from a print subsciption, "GETIT" will provide a link to the IC Library's Interlibrary Loan. Log in (same as your IC e-mail)--and set up your account if you've never used it before. "GETIT" will have populated the article request form with all the necessary information and you simply submit the request elecrtonically. Most articles are supplied as digital files and will be sent to you via e-mail when they arrive.
- Shakespeare
- Oscar Wilde
- Brooklyn: First-Year Reading
- Walden
- Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
- Harlem Renaissance
- White Noise and American Culture
- Ten Thousand Saints
- Science Fiction
- Theatre
- Theater History
- Writing
- Avant-Garde Arts
- Pop Culture Issues
- Philosophy
- Aesthetics
- Religion
- Athens and the Ancient World
The IC Library has an online subscription to the MLA's Literary Research Guide. Log-in (IC e-mail user name and password) is required.
Noodlebib guides you through the required data entry for citation in the MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian styles. It takes care of punctuation, alphabetization and formatting, producing a polished source list for import into Word.
Trouble getting started? Try my Noodlebib Users' Guide.
Trouble getting started? Try my Noodlebib Users' Guide.
- MLA citation for books: in print, from databases, on the Web
- MLA citation for articles: in print, from databases, on the Web.
- MLA citation for Web and Multimedia resources, including Web sites, movies, DVDs, CDs, and videos.
- MLA in-text (parenthetical) citation (far less satanic than the first three).
