MLAIB Advanced Search
The main advantage of the MLAIB Advanced Search is its breakdown of the 49,000 MLA Thesaurus Subject terms into categories helpful for literary reserach. These extra search slots will prompt you to make full use of the descriptors assigned to all records.
Open Advanced Search by clicking the link at the the top of the Standard Search screen.
The extra search slots under "Subjects" can help focus your search in new ways.
And here, even more than in the Standard Search, it may be a useful preliminary to check
available Subject terms by clicking the "select from thesaurus" links.
"Genre" offers hundreds of options: allegorical drama, antislavery novel, feminist poetry, metafiction.
"Literary Influence" refers to influences on the entered author.
"Literary Source" refers to the influence of the entered author.
"Literary Theme" provides a vast vocabulary: orphans, American dream, love affair, multiculturalism, whaling.
"Literature Topic" covers literary concepts and technique: blank verse, irony, unreliable narrator, tragic fall.
MALIB has increased its coverage of film and television in recent years. Here are the "Performance Medium" options that can take your topic beyond the printed page.
Click on the "select from thesaurus" link after "Period" to view the large number of predefined date spans that may be useful in researching the history of language and literature. Here is a small sample.
Return to Search Guide home page.