LibGuides: ENG 298, Writing about Literature (Erwin): Search scholarly sources

Search scholarly sources in literature

Literary criticism published in books and journals

MLA International Bibliography with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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1926-
Literary criticism published in journal articles, book chapters, books and more. Video tutorial for MLAIB
ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new window
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Poetry, drama and prose; also literature criticism journals, ebooks, and key reference resources.
Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
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Literary criticism in articles and overviews. Includes Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online, Literature Criticism Online, Literature Resource Center, Scribner Writers Series, Something About the Author, and Twayne's Authors.

What's the difference between these databases?

MLA International Bibliography's search feature searches ONLY the index entries, not inside the full text of the article (if included). For best results, search for the name of the work or the author or use the included thesaurus feature to identify a concept that will be listed in the index entry. It is a good comprehensive search of key sources of literary criticism; UNLV may not have all referenced works, but you can request article PDFs or books from interlibrary loan. MLA does not index book reviews.

ProQuest One Literature searches within the full text of articles from many current journals and ebooks available from ProQuest. It includes citations from the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature from the MHRA, a good international bibliography of literary criticism, as well as book reviews, dissertations, and entries in reference books. You can also search through some collections of poetry and prose as well as collections of historic criticism.

Gale Literature searches the full text of articles, book chapters, book reviews, and reference entries that were reprinted in the Gale Literary Criticism series. These are selected by editors and may not reflect the most recent year's publications but often include historic reviews and criticism.

Journal articles from many different academic disciplines

Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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1995-
Scholarly journals in the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.
Update frequency: monthly
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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An archive of more than 700 important scholarly journals covering business, ecology, education, ethnic studies, history, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, and sociology with content ending 3-5 years ago
JSTOR digitally archives more than 700 scholarly journals. Subjects include African-American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, business, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, and more.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Searchable articles from academic and professional journals and magazines covering every academic discipline.
Update frequency: Updated daily
This excellent one-stop resource lets you search citations and summaries by keyword and then instantly retrieve the full text of articles from journals online. The Get Text button helps you locate any article without linked full text in alternate online sources or in UNLV's print journal collection.

Search for criticism by line of text (for some canonical texts)

JSTOR Understanding ... series
Choose a passage from a literary work or the Bible and retrieve all scholarship from JSTOR that references your selection.

MLA International Bibliography - "review article" search
Example MLA search to find articles discussing recent scholarship - substitute your broad category of interest in the top box

Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly topic overviews and annotated bibliographies with expert literature reviews from a wide range of disciplines.
Video tutorial for Oxford Bibliographies
Literature Reviews - Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly research reviews on major authors, literary movements, and critical approaches.

YWES Year's Work in English Studies
This journal publishes annual analytic overviews of new literary criticism organized by genre and time period.
Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory.
Annual review of new scholarship
Literature Compass
Journal with articles that skew toward literature reviews.

Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new window
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citations 1861-; abstracts 1980-; full text 1997-
Full text of most dissertations produced after 1997; citations and abstracts for others.
Update frequency: Updated quarterly
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses contains over 1.5 million entries, providing citations to North American and European dissertations from 1861 forward, with abstracts from 1980 forward. It also provides citations and abstracts for theses from 1988 forward. Full text of UNLV theses and dissertations available from 1996 to the present. Full text from all other institutions available from 1997 to the present.

Dictionary of Literary Biography (Gale Literature) This link opens in a new window
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Substantial biographical overviews of literary authors.
Reliable information on authors and their works, placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online includes the main series, documentary, and yearbook volumes.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
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Meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past.
Online version of the Oxford English Dictionary. A guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. It also offers the best in etymological analysis, listings of variant spellings, and shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
MLA Directory of Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Editorial contact information as well as frequency, circulation, subscription prices and submission guidelines for 7100 journals in modern languages and literature.
The MLA Directory of Periodicals offers detailed information on over 7,100 journals, of which 4,400 are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography. Entries include editorial contact information as well as frequency, circulation, subscription prices and submission guidelines. This directory has publication information only - use the MLA International Bibliography to locate journal articles in literature.
Magill's Literary Annual This link opens in a new window
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Book reviews and essays published in Magill's Literary Annual
1976-present
Over 7,200 reviews and essays covering fiction and nonfiction, across subjects, genres, and countries from the last 36 years.

YWES Year's Work in English Studies
This journal publishes annual analytic overviews of new literary criticism organized by genre and time period.

Theatre in Context This link opens in a new window
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Reference texts in American theater, as well as images of posters, playbills, photos, architectural images, floor plans, and other ephemera.
Update frequency: quarterly
Play Index This link opens in a new window
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Locate plays published in anthologies, search for plays by subject, and find plays by size and gender of cast.
Play Index is useful for locating plays published in anthologies, searching for plays by subject, and for selecting plays by size and gender of cast, running time, set requirements, musical numbers, and other criteria. An annotated listings for each play summarizes the plot, set and scenery requirements.

Encyclopedia of Rhetoric
150 entries, written by leading scholars, bring together expertise in classical studies, philosophy, literature, literary theory, cultural studies, speech, and communications in a comprehensive treatment of the art of persuasion.

Credo General Reference This link opens in a new window
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Dictionaries, specialized encyclopedias, quotations, thesauri, and bilingual dictionaries.

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature This link opens in a new window
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Index of literary criticism published in books, journal articles, and collections of essays.
Update frequency: annual
More info: Corresponds to material found in the print publication: Annual bibliography of English language and literature (and its earlier title: Bibliography of English language and literature).
Use this resource for to find articles about English language and literature, literary authors, critical theory, and bibliographic studies. Includes citations to critical editions of literary works, and book reviews. To search within the full text of articles, search ABELL via LION's Criticism & Reference search.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new window
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1975-
A&HCI provides access to current and retrospective bibliographic information and cited references found in nearly 1,130 of the world's leading arts & humanities journals.
Update frequency: Updated weekly
Use this tool to identify how often a particular author has been cited in the work of peers or to identify the most influential scholarship on a topic.
ITER Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Bibliography of the Middle Ages and Renaissance covering scholarship in archaeology, art, history, literature, music, philosophy, religion, and history of science for the years 400-1700.
It provides citations for books, journal material published since 1842 (articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies), and citations for essays in books published since 1993.
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Retrospective This link opens in a new window
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1890-1982
Index to articles in popular magazines before 1983.
Citations to articles in U. S. general-interest magazines, providing coverage of events prior to 1983. Covers nonfiction, fiction, poems, short stories, and reviews of books, dance, motion pictures, musicals, operas and operettas, radio and television programs, and theater.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database This link opens in a new window
Index of articles on cover all aspects of science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural and weird fiction
Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database is an online searchable index designed to cover all aspects of science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural and weird fiction.
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online This link opens in a new window
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1966-
Annotated citations of scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare.
Books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, information about theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, and electronic media

Reader's guides

Companions, plot summaries, critical overviews, reading guides and more.

Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
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Literary criticism in articles and overviews. Includes Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online, Literature Criticism Online, Literature Resource Center, Scribner Writers Series, Something About the Author, and Twayne's Authors.

Magill's Literary Annual
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Plot summaries and citations of published reviews.

ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new window
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Poetry, drama and prose; also literature criticism journals, ebooks, and key reference resources.

Literary Theory

Key Terms in Literary Theory by Mary Klages
ISBN: 9781441115737
Publication Date: 2012
Key Concepts in Literary Theory by Julian Wolfreys; Ruth Robbins; Kenneth Womack
ISBN: 9780748624584
Publication Date: 2006

humanities librarian

Priscilla Finley, humanities librarian

Email Me

Contact:

Lied Library LLB1187

(702) 570-1338

Subjects: English, Film Studies, History, Literature, Philosophy, Theater Arts, World Languages and Cultures

Dictionaries

English Language

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
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Meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past.
Online version of the Oxford English Dictionary. A guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. It also offers the best in etymological analysis, listings of variant spellings, and shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Lexicons of Early Modern English This link opens in a new window
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1480-1702
Explore word histories in this compilation of over 150 dictionaries from the early modern period
Compiles over 150 monolingual, bilingual, and polyglot dictionaries and glossaries from the early modern period in which either source or target language is English, as well as linguistic treatises, and encyclopedic or topical works. A half-million word-entries devised by contemporary speakers of early modern English describe the meaning of words, and their equivalents in languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and other tongues encountered then in Europe, America, and Asia.

Specialized terms and concepts found in literary criticism

A New Handbook of Literary Terms by David Mikics
ISBN: 9780300135220
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
The Book of Literary Terms : The Genres of Fiction, Drama, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, and Scholarship. by Lewis Turco
ISBN: 9780826361936
Publication Date: 2020

Author biographies and bibliographies

Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
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Literary criticism in articles and overviews. Includes Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online, Literature Criticism Online, Literature Resource Center, Scribner Writers Series, Something About the Author, and Twayne's Authors.
ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Poetry, drama and prose; also literature criticism journals, ebooks, and key reference resources.
Dictionary of Literary Biography (Gale Literature) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Substantial biographical overviews of literary authors.
Reliable information on authors and their works, placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online includes the main series, documentary, and yearbook volumes.

Overviews & textbooks

Research Methods for English Studies by Gabriele Griffin (Editor)
ISBN: 9780748683437
Publication Date: 2013
An Introduction to Literary Studies by Mario Klarer
ISBN: 9780415811910
Publication Date: 2013

ENG 298, Writing about Literature (Erwin): Search scholarly sources