Literary Criticism

Books

To find books of criticism about an author, do a subject search for the author's name in the library catalog.  Enter the search, last name first. You may leave out commas and periods:

dickinson emily
austen jane
eliot t s

Examine your results for helpful subject subdivisions (subheadings), such as Criticism and interpretation, History and criticism, and Bibliography.

Examples of ways in which these subject search elements can be combined:

Morrison, Toni - Criticism and interpretation
Shakespeare, William, 1569-1616 - Sonnets
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 - Bibliography

It's also possible to search for the title of a work as a subject, such as Moby Dick or Things Fall Apart.

Ways to focus your search can include:

Original language of the work (Spanish, English, German ...)
Literary form (drama, poetry, fiction ...)
Time period (medieval, 18th century ...)
Author characteristics, such as:

Nationality (American essays ...)
Gender (Feminist literary criticism ...)
Geographic location (Caribbean drama ...)
Ethnicity (Slavic literature ...)

Online periodical indexes

To find critical articles about a work or an author, try a search for the author name and/or work title in the following databases:

MLA Bibliography. Authoritative index to scholarly research on English, American, and world Literature, languages, and linguistics.

Humanities Full Text. Index to a number of major journals in the humanities, including full-text articles. Great place to search for literature and language, classics, folklore, drama, and the performing arts.

Literary Journals from JSTOR. Complete full-text back runs of many core journals in language and literature.

Literature Online (LION). Works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, with many full-text literature journals, and other criticism and reference resources.

For further resources, see a complete list of our online periodical indexes for Literature.

Print literary criticism resources

The Ramsey Library Reference Collection contains many multi-volume series of literary criticism, and their comprehensive indexes make them good starting places for research.

Works in the Gale Literary Criticism Series provide access to biographical information and critical articles.  Most of these titles contain cumulative author and title indexes in which you can look up a specific literary work.

However, the most convenient way to locate an author or title in any of the Gale Literary Series is to search Gale's Literary Index online. It includes the following titles shelved in the Reference collection:

Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) Ref PN771 .C65x
Living authors or those who died after 1959

Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (TCLC)  Ref PN771 .T85x
Authors who died between 1900 and 1959

Native North American Literature  Ref PS508.I5 N38 1994
U.S. and Canadian native writers from historical times to 1994

Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism (NCLC)  Ref PN761 .N5
Authors who died between 1800 and 1899

Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 (LC)  Ref PN86 .L53
Authors who died between 1400 and 1799 (excluding Shakespeare)

Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism (CMLC)  Ref PN610 .C53  Authors who died before 1400

Shakespearean Criticism  Ref PR2965 .S43
Shakespeare's plays and poetry

Black Literature Criticism (BLC)  Ref PS153 .N5 B556 1992
Black authors of the past 200 years

Hispanic Literature Criticism (HLC)  Ref PQ7081.A1 H573
Hispanic authors of late 19th and 20th centuries

The Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) is an ongoing series that contains both criticism and biographies of writers and other influential literary figures such as historians, journalists, publishers, and screenwriters. Each volume focuses on a specific topic, period, or genre (for example, vol. 237 is The Beats, A Documentary Volume), and contains a cumulative index of individuals and subjects reviewed to date in the series. Annual updates to earlier DLB articles are published in yearbooks, and intensive treatments of prominent literary figures appear in the DLB documentary series.

Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB)  Ref PN451 .D5
Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, 1980-  Ref PN451.D5 Y3
Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary Series  Ref PN451.D5 D6

The Magill's Critical Survey Of ... are multi-volume sets generally organized by literary form and language. Ramsey Library has:

Critical Survey of Drama: English Language Series  Ref PR623 .C75 1994
Critical Survey of Drama: Foreign Language Series  Ref PN1625 .C74 1986
Critical Survey of Poetry: English Language Series  Ref PR502 .C85 1992
Critical Survey of Poetry: Foreign Language Series  Ref PN1111 .C7 1984
Critical Survey of Short Fiction  Ref PN3321 .C7 1993

To locate articles in the above series, see the Magill Index to Critical Surveys: Cumulative Indexes 1981-1988  Ref PN524 .M34 1990

Other useful multivolume series include:

American Writers, 1974-  Ref PS129 .A55

British Writers, 1979-  Ref PR85 .B688

European Writers, 1983-  Ref PN501 .E9

Further reources

If your topic has been previously researched, someone may have published a guide to useful sources.  Often words such as guide, checklist, explication, or bibliography occur in the title, or the call number begins with the letter Z.  For example:

A Guide to Critical Reviews of United States Fiction, 1870-1910  Ref Z1225 .E35

Poetry Explication: A Checklist of Interpretation Since 1925 for British and American Poems Past and Present  PR 502 .B1 K86 1980

Articles on Twentieth Century Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, 1954 to 1970
Ref Z6519 .P66

Twentieth Century Short Story Explication: New Series  Ref PN3373.B1 W34 1993

Magill's Bibliography of Literary Criticism  Ref PN523 .M25

Literary Criticism Index also provides quick access to criticism of a specific work of literature in numerous bibliographies and checklists.  Ref Desk PN523 .B1 W44

Other suggestions

If you're researching a particular author, try browsing the general stacks in the appropriate call number area.  Works by the author are shelved first, followed by biographies, criticism and interpretation, and bibliographies about the author.

Another good source for a specific author is the Biography and Genealogy Master Index, available to UNCA users online.

Web resources

Literary Criticism Collection
Internet Public Library site provides links to online critical and biographical information about authors and their works -- browseable by author, title, or literary period.

Literary Resources on the Net
Comprehensive, searchable collection of websites related to literature and the humanities. Compiled by Rutgers University Professor Jack Lynch.

Lit Links
Annotated links explain what type of information about a literary work, its author, or period can be found on each site.  Organized alphabetically by author within the genres of critical theory, drama, essays, fiction, and poetry.  Sponsored by Bedford/St. Martin's.

Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research
A must-visit site with extensive literature resources.

English & American Literature
Ramsey research guide with many links to online books and articles.

Feeling overwhelmed?  Please feel free to ask for help at the Research Desk.

Originally created by Araby Greene. Last updated 8 November, 2007. Comments to the Library Web Team.

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