Guide to Finding Literary criticism

Databases

• Academic Search Complete (approximately 1880s to date). Provides abstracts of articles (summaries), and full-text articles from more than 10,000 books, scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, and reference works on a wide variety of topics.
• American Periodicals Series Online (1741 to 1900). Provides digitized images of more than 1,000 American magazines and journals.
• Arts & Humanities Search (1980 to date). Indexes more than 1,300 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.
• Humanities Abstracts (1983 to date). Indexes a broad range of some 500 magazines and journal publications.
• Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984. Indexes nearly 1,200 periodicals in the social sciences and humanities.
• Literature Resource Center (LRC) (coverage varies by publication). Provides access to critical analyses of and biographical information on living and deceased authors from around the world. See the TipSheet on using this database.
• MLA International Bibliography (1963 to date). A comprehensive, international index to articles and books on language, literature, and the dramatic arts.
• Project Muse (coverage varies; mostly 1995 to date). Provides online access to more than 300 scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

For a complete listing of databases provided by UMW Libraries, please see Databases A-Z.

selected reference books in simpson library

• General Works
• Specialized Works
• Novel Criticism
• Short Story Criticism
• Poetry Criticism
• Drama Criticism
• General Criticism by Ethnicity or Nationality

general works

• Dictionary of Literary Biography REFB PN 501 .D5x
• Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms REFB PN 81 .E43 1993
• Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism REFB PN 86 .E63 1999
• The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism REFB PN 81 .J64 2005
• Literary Criticism Index REFB PN 523 .W4x 1994
• Magill's Survey of World Literature REFB PN 523 .M29 1993
• Masterplots: 1,801 Plot Stories and Critical Evaluations of the World's Finest Literature REFB PN 44 .M33 1996
• Research Guide to Biography and Criticism REFB PR 85 .R47 1985

specialized works

• Articles on American Literature, 1900-1950, 1950-1967, 1968-1975 REFB PS .L491 / .L493
• Articles on Twentieth Century Literature REFB PN 771 .P66
• Articles on Twentieth Century Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, 1954-1970 REFB PN 771
• Children's Literature Review REFB PN 1009 .A1 C5139
• Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism REFB PN 681.5 .C57
• Contemporary Authors REFB PN 451 .C58
• Contemporary Literary Criticism REFB PN 771 .C59
• Epic and Romance Criticism: A Checklist of Interpretations REFB PN 56 .E65 C64x 1973
• Literary Criticism from 1400 to 1800 REFB PN 86 .L56
• Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism REFB PN 761 .N5
• Shakespearean Criticism REFB PR 2965 .S43
• Twentieth-Century American Literature REFB PS 221 .T834
• Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism REFB PN 771 .G27

Novel Criticism

• The American Novel: A Checklist of Twentieth-Century Criticism, 1789-1959; 1960-1968 REFB PS 371 .G4
• The Columbia Guide to the Latin American Novel Since 1945 REFB PQ 7082 .N7 W546 2007
• The Contemporary Novel: A Checklist of Critical Literature on the British and American Novel Since 1945 REFB PS 379 .A34
• The Continental Novel: A Checklist of Criticism in English, 1900-1966, 1976-1980 REFB PN 3451 .K38x / .F5x
• Critical Survey of Long Fiction REFB PR 821 .C7 2000
• English Language Criticism on the Foreign Novel: 1965-1975 REFB PN 3335 .A39
• The English Novel, 1578-1956: A Checklist of Twentieth-Century Criticisms REFB PR 821 .B42
• The English Novel, 1660-1700: An Annotated Bibliography REFB PR 841 .L46 1997
• The English Novel, 1700-1740: An Annotated Bibliography REFB PR 841 .L461 2002
• The English Novel: Twentieth-Century Criticism REFB PR 821.E53
• English Novel Explication REFB PR 821 .P26
• Facts on File Bibliography of American Fiction, Through 1865, 1866-1918, 1919-1988 REFB PS 379 .B511 / 512
• Literary Criticism Index REFB PN 523 .W4x

Short Story Criticism

• Critical Survey of Short Fiction REFB PN 3321 .C7
• Literary Criticism Index REFB PN 523 .W4x 1994
• Short Story Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Short Fiction Writers REFB PN 3373 .S56
• Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication REFB PN 3373 .W325x
• Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication: New Series REFB PN 3373 .W327x

Poetry Criticism

• African American Poets: Lives, Works, and Sources REFB PS 153 .N5 P48 2002
• American and British Poetry: A Guide to the Criticism, 1925-1978 REFB PS 303 .A48x
• Contemporary American Ethnic Poets: Lives, Works, Sources REFB PS 153 .M56 C66 2004
• Critical Survey of Poetry PN 1021 .C7 2003
• Guide to American Poetry Explication REFB PS 303 .L46/.R66
• Guide to British Poetry Explication REFB PR 311 .M34
• Literary Criticism Index REFB PN 523 .W4x
• Nineteenth Century American Poetry: An Annotated Bibliography REFB PS 316 .J37
• Poetry Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of the Most Significant and Widely Studied Poets of World Literature REFB PN 1010 .P62

Drama Criticism

• American Drama Criticism: Interpretations REFB PS 332 .E32
• American Women Playwrights, 1964-1989 REFB PS 338 .W6 G38
• Black American Playwrights, 1800 to the Present REFB PS 153.N5 A7
• Critical Survey of Drama REFB PN 1625 .C68 2003
• Drama Criticism REFB PN 1601 .D59
• Dramatic Criticism Index REFB PN 2189 .B62x 1972
• European Drama Criticism: 1900-1975 REFB PN 1721 .P26x
• Guide to British Drama Explication REFB PR 625 .D68
• A Guide to Critical Reviews REFB PN 2277 .N5 S28x
• Literary Criticism Index REFB PN 523 .W4x
• Modern Drama REFB PN 2189 .A33x 1967
• More Black American Playwrights REFB PS 153 .N5 A73
• Selected Theatre Criticism REFB PN 2277 .S44 1985

General Criticism by Ethnicity or Nationality

• Asian American Literature: Reviews and Criticism of Works by American Writers of Asian Descent REFB PS 153 .A84 A82 1999
• Black Literature Criticism REFB PS 153 .N5 B556
• The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature REFB PS 153 .M56 G74 2005
• Hispanic Literature Criticism REFB PQ 7081 .A1 H573
• Jewish American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical and Critical Sourcebook REFB PS 153 .J4 J48 1994
• Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook REFB PN 452 .M85 2002
• Multicultural Writers Since 1945: An A - Z Guide REFB PN 452 .M88 2004

Websites

Virtual Libraries

Virtual libraries contain annotated collections of high-quality Internet resources that librarians or other information specialists have carefully selected. Users can usually browse by subject or search.

• Librarians' Internet Index. See especially the Literature & Books category under Arts and Humanities. The subdivisions on the left help you to browse the hundreds of literary resources. In addition, you can use the drop-down menu to narrow and focus your search.
• The Internet Public Library. See especially the Literature category under Arts & Humanities. The many sections of "Literature" include:
  • Authors
  • Criticism
  • Literature by Time Period

General Works

• Critical Reading: A Guide. A guide for "analyzing literature, particularly poetry and fiction."
• The Internet Public Library: Special Collections: Literary Criticism. Contains "critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period." At the bottom of the page are links to the Internet Public Library's Online Literary Criticism Guide and Literary Criticism Pathfinder.
• Literary Resources on the Net. A directory of websites with special emphasis on American and English literature, "excluding most single electronic texts, and is limited to collections of information useful to academics."
• LitLinks. Annotated links to author websites within the genres of fiction, essays, poetry, drama, and critical theory. Also provides information on literary periods.

Specialized Works

• ABC-Lit: An Index to Children's Literature Scholarship. A resource "designed for use by those interested in the theories and criticism used to analyze children's literature."
• A Celebration of Women Writers. Provides a comprehensive listing of links to literary criticism about women authors, as well as biographical and bibliographical information.
• Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide. Furnishes literary criticism, biographical material, and extensive primary and secondary bibliographies for hundreds of American authors. Appendices provide information on literary themes, movements, and other topics.
• SSSL: Bibliography; A Checklist of Scholarship on Southern Literature. "An annotated checklist of scholarship on writings and writers (novelists, playwrights, poets, essayists, diarists) of the American South."
• Voices from the Gaps: Women Artists and Writers of Color. Furnishes biographies, criticism, bibliographies, and listings of web resources on the “lives and works of North American women writers of color.”