Literary Criticism: A Research Guide

What is Literary Criticism? How do I find it?

Literary criticism is the term given to studies that define, classify, analyze, interpret, and evaluate works of literature. There are many types of literary criticism: some examples include historical criticism, textual criticism, feminist criticism, and formal criticism. Literary criticism may examine a particular literary work or it may look at an author's writings as a whole. Finding literary criticism can be challenging. This research guide is designed to help students research and write a literary criticism paper. Please contact the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor of Mitchell Memorial Library, (662) 325-7667, or Email a Librarian for further assistance with any of these resources or with any questions.

On the Internet or In the Library?

There are many good sources of literary criticism that are now available online. However, there are many excellent resources that are not yet available electronically, or that require a subscription. Therefore, it will probably be necessary to do some research at a library in order to write a paper that requires literary criticism.

Terms & Concepts	Author Information	Criticism & Summaries
Finding Books	Finding Articles	Writing the Paper

Terms & Concepts

Need a definition for irony, naturalism, symbolism, or some other term?

Reference Resources

Holman, C. Hugh and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature, 6^th edition. New York : Macmillan Publishing Company.
Ref PN41.H6 1992

Comprehensive listing and explanation of terms useful in the study of literature in English.

Scott, A.F. Current Literary Terms: A Concise Dictionary of their Origin and Use. New York : St. Martin's Press.
Ref PN44.5.S3 1979

Alphabetically arranged cross-referenced definitions of principal terms used in all branches of literature.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York : McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Ref PN44.5.S46: Definitions, explications, and illustrations of literary terms, references, and illusions encountered by today's student.

Selected Internet Resources

Glossary of Literary Terms
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_a.htm: Expanded online glossary of literary terms sponsored by Bedford/St. Martin's Press.

Notes in the Margin Glossary of Literary Terms
http://www.notesinthemargin.org/glossary.html: Online glossary of literary terms with basic definitions of frequently used literary terms.

Author Information

Reference Resources

Biography and Geneaology Master Index
Available electronically.
** In order to remotely access BGMI, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **: Comprehensive index to more than 12.7 million biographical sketches in more than 3,400 volumes and editions of current and retrospective reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world.

Biography Index. New York : H.W. Wilson Company.
Ref CT Z 5301.B5 -- 1946-1996, located on Low Shelves : 1984-present available electronically.
** In order to remotely access Biography Index, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **: Cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines.

Contemporary Authors. Detroit : Gale Research Company.
Ref Z1224.C6 -- Also available electronically.
** In order to remotely access Contemporary Authors, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **: This multi-volume set is a bio-bibliographical guide to writers of fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields.

Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Detroit : Gale Research Company.
Ref Z1224.C63 -- Also available electronically.
** In order to remotely access Contemporary Authors: NRS, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **: This multi-volume set is a bio-bibliographical guide to writers of fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields.

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit : Gale Research Company.
various call numbers: In order to locate individual volumes of this multi-volume bio-bibliographical guide to writers, do a TITLE Search in the online catalog for "Dictionary of Literary Biography".

DISCovering Authors. Detroit : Gale Research Company.
Available electronically.
** In order to remotely access DISCovering Authors, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **: Comprehensive guide to bio-bibliographical information, as well as criticism, of some of the most-studied novelists, poets, and dramatists, with special emphasis on multicultural and popular and genre fiction.

The New York Times Obituaries Index, 1858-1978. New York : The New York Times.
Ref CT213.N47: Index to approximately 400,000 obituaries that appeared in The New York Times from 1858-1978.

Selected Internet Resources

Biography.com
http://www.biography.com/: Maintained by A&E New Media, this searchable database contains over 20,000 different people from the past to the present.

Biographical Dictionary
http://www.s9.com/biography/: Biographical sketches of more than 25,000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day.

Criticism & Summaries

Looking for some representative criticism on an author or literary work? Want a plot summary and/or character list for Paradise Lost?

Reference Resources

Academic Search Premier
Available electronically.
** In order to remotely access ASE, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **: Academic Search Premier abstracts and indexes nearly 6,300 scholarly journals and provides full text for almost 4,000 titles. Literary criticism can be located in this database by searching for either the author of the work or the title of the work and combining the search with the term "criticism."

Critical Survey of... Pasadena, California : Salem Press.: These critical surveys are analytical reference guides to the major writers of world literature who are read and analyzed by students and general readers alike.

Critical Survey
of Drama
Ref PR623.C75

Critical Survey of
Literary Theory
Ref PN45.C74 1987

Critical Survey of
Poetry
Ref PR502.C85

Critical Survey of
Short Fiction
Ref PN3321.C7

The Explicator. Washington, D.C. : Heldref Publications.
Current year available in Current Journals, issues back to 1942 available in Bound Periodicals Room.
From 1990 to present The Explicator is available full-text in Academic Search Premier.: The Explicator is a scholarly journal that contains short papers relevant to explication of text in prose or poetry directly related to the interpretation of the text.

Gale Criticism Series. Detroit, Michigan : Gale Group.: These critical series contain introductory biographical sketches of authors, a chronology of principal works, excerpts of published criticism with complete bibliographical citations, and sources for further reading.

Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism Ref PN610 .C53	Literature Criticism 1400-1800 Ref PN86 .L56	Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism Ref PN761 .N5	Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Ref PN771 .G27
Black Literature Criticism Ref PS153.N5 B556	Contemporary Literary Criticism Ref PN771 .C59	Drama Criticism Ref PN1601 .D59	Poetry Criticism Ref PN1010 .P499
Shakespearean Criticism Ref PR2965 .S43	Short Story Criticism Ref PN3373 .S386

Masterplots. Pasadena, California : Salem Press.: Located on the Low Shelves in the Reference Room, the Masterplots series summarize the plot and characters of major literary works.

The Revised Edition Ref PN45.C74 1987	American Fiction Ref PR502.C85	British and Commonwealth Fiction Ref PN3321.C7	African American Literature Ref PS153.N5 M2645 1994
Poetry Ref PN1110.5 .M37 1992	Short Story Ref PN3326 .M27 1986	Drama PN6112.5 .M37 1990

MLA Bibliography
Available electronically.
** In order to remotely access MLA, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **: The MLA International Bibliography, produced by the Modern Language Association of America, consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore and includes coverage from 1963 to the present.

Selected Internet Resources

The Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Collection
http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit: The IPL Online Literary Criticism Collection contains 4637 critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period.

SparkNotes
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/.dir/author: Free literary study guides on the Internet. Each guide discusses the characters and setting of the literary work and includes a summary, a commentary, and study questions.

Finding Books

Looking for a book about an author or a volume of critical essays on a literary work?

Online Catalog

In order to find books about an author or critical essays on literature at Mississippi State University, it is necessary to use the Online Catalog.

Once logged into the catalog, two types of searches, the "SUBJECT" and "KEYWORD", will help locate books about an author or critical essays on literary work.

The Subject Search: Use this search when looking for books about an author by entering the author's name (last name, first name).

The Keyword Search: Use this search when looking for critical materials on an author's writings or a particular literary work. Do the keyword search by entering the author's name or the name of the literary work and the term "criticism."
Examples:
Faulkner Criticism
As I Lay Dying Criticism


Need some critical articles about an author or literary work?

Electronic Databases

The Internet is not the best place to search for critical articles on an author or a literary work. The best place to find references to articles is in an electronic database.

In an electronic database, a search is done similar to the way a search is done in Galaxy. The results retrieved are citations to articles in journals and books. Once relevant results have been selected, it is then necessary to verify in Galaxy whether or not MSU possesses the titles of interest. If MSU does possess the titles, the materials may be retrieved from the collection. If MSU does not possess the titles, they may be ordered through Interlibrary Loan.

Searching in Electronic Databases

Search for literary criticism in an electronic database by entering the author's name or the name of the literary work, the term "and", and the term "criticism."
Examples:
Morrison AND Criticism
Beloved AND Criticism

** In order to remotely access electronic databases, you must be affiliated with Mississippi State University. **

The electronic databases most useful for literary research include:

Academic Search Premier: Academic Search Premier abstracts and indexes nearly 6,300 scholarly journals and provides full text for almost 4,000 titles. Literary criticism can be located in this database by searching for either the author of the work or the title of the work and combining the search with the term "criticism."

Arts & Humanities Search: Records referencing many of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.

Contemporary Literary Criticism Select: Extensive full-text collection of critical essays on contemporary writers.

DISCovering Authors: Comprehensive guide to bio-bibliographical information, as well as criticism, of some of the most-studied novelists, poets, and dramatists, with special emphasis on multicultural and popular and genre fiction.

EXPLORING Poetry: EXPLORING Poetry is the source for information on over 200 of the most frequently studied poems in literature classes, on their images, themes, and construction.

MLA Bibliography: The MLA International Bibliography, produced by the Modern Language Association of America, consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore and includes coverage from 1963 to the present.

Poem Finder: Poem Finder is the largest, most comprehensive and most current poetry database available

Writing the Paper

Need help organizing the paper or citing sources?

Reference Resources

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5^th edition. New York : Modern Language Association.
Ref LB2369 .G53 1999 - Located behind the Ready Reference Desk: The most used source for organizing a paper and citing sources in MLA style.

Fowler, H. Ramsey. The Little, Brown Handbook, 8^th edition. New York : Longman.
Ref PE1112 .F64 2001 - Located behind the Ready Reference Desk: Classic handbook for writers.

Selected Internet Resources

Style Manuals Online
Click "Style Manuals Online" from the Reference Department Web Page (http://library.msstate.edu/content/templates/?a=407&z=81).: Access to a variety of style manuals online.

Originally created by Renee Goodvin and Deborah Lee. Maintained by Deborah Lee
Created 7/31/02.

Other Helpful Resources

News

Spotlight

Literary Criticism: A Research Guide