Your annotated bibliography will take quite a bit of time to complete, so keep these things in mind:
For this HON 100 assignment, you will choose a literary character, theme, or archetype, and provide a solid document of 15-18 annotations to help you with your final essay (an academic encyclopedia entry).
The following formats of information are required:
The UNLV Writing Center has excellent handouts for citation: link. Check out "APA References 7th Edition," "Chicago Manual of Style Notes and Bibliography," and "MLA Works Cited 8th Edition."
Purpose: Encyclopedias are great for building background knowledge. They can also show you the range of contexts in which your mythological idea has appeared, which can help you get ideas for contemporary adaptations. They also give a general idea of what your final project might look like.
Example: Bann, Jenny. "Troll." The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Ashgate Publishing, 1st edition, 2014. Credo Reference.
Recommended Source: Credo General Reference
Purpose: Books can provide scholarly perspective on how your mythological idea has influenced our culture. They can also serve as examples of creative adaptations, like novels and graphic novels.
Examples: Lindow, John. Trolls : an Unnatural History. Reaktion Books, 2014. Link
Farmer, Nancy. The Sea of Trolls. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004. Link
Recommended Sources: QuickSearch for UNLV Library. Your public library will likely also give you access to several helpful books.
Purpose: See how artists have imagined your mythological idea.
Example: Kittelsen, Theodor. Skogtroll. 1906, Nationalmusjeet, Norway. Link.
Strategy: Search for images in Google, but try to find your way to a museum website. Museums not only post images, they also include information about the work and the author, which will help you with your annotated bibliography. I took the following steps to find the image above:
Purpose: See how other scholars interpret your mythological idea in comparison to historical developments, psychological theories, and other works of literature. While these articles can help you develop your own interpretation, you don't necessarily have to agree with them. In fact, points of disagreement can make your research more interesting (especially if the text backs up your interpretation).
Example: Attebery, Jennifer Eastman. “The Trolls of Fiction: Ogres or Warm Fuzzies?” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 7, no. 1 (25), 1996, pp. 61–74. www.jstor.org/stable/43308256.
Recommended Sources:
Database | Pro (+) | Con (-) |
JSTOR | This is the easiest option, if it works. There is solid coverage of scholarship relating to myth, folklore, and literature. If you find an article that looks promising, the full text version of the article is always available. | Covers several disciplines, so you may need to look through several articles before you get to something related to myth, folklore, and literature. Also, JSTOR does not include articles published within the past 3 to 5 years. Not having the most recent scholarship isn't a deal-breaker for this project, but it's something to be aware of. |
Literature Online (LiOn) | This is the best option, but it takes a little persistence. Only covers literature related to literature, myth, and folklore, so your searching will be very focused. Includes very recent scholarship. Covers a broader selection of literature journals than JSTOR. | Many entries do not include the full text of the article. Click UNLV Full Text to go to a QuickSearch entry for the article. QuickSearch will give you your options for finding full text in the the View It section of the entry. If UNLV does not have access to the full text, you can always get it from another library using Interlibrary Loan. |
Purpose: Learn how your mythological idea influences culture outside of academic teaching and research.
Example: Sara, Miller L. "Trolls, Ogres, and Giant Cats: How Iceland Celebrates Christmas." The Christian Science Monitor, Dec 19, 2017. Link.
Kopstals, Alexandra . "A saga of trolls, Vikings and ancient hockey - Alexandra Kopstals explores folkloric history of Iceland." Toronto Star, ONTARIO ed., sec. Travel, 12 Dec. 2015, p. T6. Link.
Recommended sources: Access World News: Research Collection, US Newsstream