Literary Criticism

Literary Criticism
A Resource Guide

Search for criticism, usually of older literary works, by either subject or keyword searches via AubieCat.  These searches will yield book-length critical works instead of journal articles. For a subject search you must enter the author's last name first.

Examples: 

swift jonathan [subject search]

"swift jonathan" AND "gullivers travels" [keyword search]

"gullivers travels" AND "criticism" [keyword search] 

ONLINE DATABASES/INDEXES 

General Databases

For recent articles you may choose to use InfoTrac's Expanded Academic ASAP, a database that indexes 1,500 magazines and journals, and includes the full text of many articles. From the library's homepage, choose the option 'Find Articles.'  General databases appear on the left of the screen. You can also search Ebsco's Academic Search Elite. Once in the system, a keyword search using the author's name and the major words in the title of the book you are interested in will yield greatest results. 

Literature Databases

Gale Indexes

Gale Literary Index
The Gale Literary Index is a master index to the major literature series published by The Gale Group. It combines and cross references more than 130,000 author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and more than 140,000 titles into one source.

Contemporary Authors
A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields. Provides complete biographical and bibliographical references for more than 90,000 authors in the U.S. and around the world. 

Scribner Writers Series
The Scribner Writers Series includes some 1,600 full-text articles on writers and literary genres drawn from thirteen acclaimed print sets. Each signed article was written by a noted scholar and concludes with a bibliography of primary and secondary sources for further study. 

Twayne Authors Series
Provides access to Twayne's U.S. Authors, Twayne's English Authors, and Twayne's World Authors. The Twayne Authors Series offers criticism by scholars on hundreds of years of literature--from Aristophanes to Bharati Mukherjee. It provides critical introductions to the lives and works of writers, to the history and influence of literary movements, or the development of literary genres. 

The MLA database (coverage from 1963) indexes critical writing on literature, language, linguistics, and folklore, and is international in coverage. From the libraries homepage, it is accessible through 'Find Articles' and then 'Databases by Title'.  In this database, you have the option of limiting you searches by language, publication type, source, or year. It is also available in print (1921-1999) REF  PN 1 .M15

Literature Online (Cadwyck-Healey) a database of databases that includes editions of full-text literary works, indexes to criticism, and links to Internet resources.  The most comprehensive full-text database for literature.  The library's subscription includes the following selected databases:   Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, Periodicals Contents Index: Literature, African-American Poetry (1750-1900), Twentieth Century African-American Poetry (1901-1998), American Poetry (1600-1900), Twentieth Century American Poetry (1901-1997), Early English Prose Fiction (1500-1700), Eighteenth-Century Fiction (1700-1780), English Drama (1280-1915), English Poetry (600-1900), and Modern Poetry (1972-1997). 

JSTOR JSTOR provides access to the back files of scholarly publications covering the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. JSTOR includes the full runs of each journal, generally up to 1-7 years from the present. A sophisticated search engine supports full-text and cross-disciplinary searching of the journals and presentation of page images allows viewing of the articles exactly as they appear in print. 

Project Muse Full-text of over 40 print journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University Press covering 1990-present. Includes journals such as Configurations, Diacritics, and The Yale Journal of Criticism.

Print Indexes

Gale Literary Criticism Series

The following works include a biographical sketch of the author and excerpts of selected criticism with the citation for the complete review. Often the entry will include an additional bibliography. The indexes at the back of the volumes include cross-references to other Gale publications.  The series includes:

Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism  PN 610 .C53

            Literature Criticism from 1400-1800  PN 86 .L53 1984

            Shakespearean Criticism  PR 2965 .S44

            Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism  PN 761 .N5

            Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism PN 771 .G27

            Contemporary Literary Criticism PN 771 .C65

 Articles on American Literature  PS 88 .A7; PS88 .A71; PS 88 .A72

Reviews are alphabetical by author. This three-volume set covers articles written in English about American literature between the years 1900-1975.

"Blue Notebooks"

Location: 2nd floor reference shelves

This index lists scholarly articles on poetry, short stories, fiction, and drama in periodicals owned by Auburn University Libraries. It is arranged alphabetically by author, and then by the work under the author's name. Call numbers for the items in the index are included. No additions have been made to this index since 1990.

Essay and General Literature Index  AI 3 .E752

This index covers essays published in collections, mainly in the humanities and social sciences, beginning in 1900. Reviews are listed alphabetically by the author of the book being reviewed. Auburn University Libraries own volumes through 1994.

Humanities Index  AI 3 .H9 (print indexes 1974-1992) ran under the title Social Sciences and Humanities Index H 1 .S63 (print indexes 1965-1974), and International Index to Periodicals REF AI 3 .R47 (print indexes 1920-1955) and Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature REF AI 3 .R4 (print indexes 190-1919). Articles about fiction are indexed by the author of the work.

Magill's Bibliography of Literary Criticism Z6511 .M245 

Lists critical reviews through 1978. Entries are alphabetical by the author of the work being reviewed. An index to the four-volume work is included in volume four.

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A helpful tool when dealing with literary criticism is A Handbook to Literature REF PN 41 .H355 2000, by William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman.  The most recent edition is kept at the 2nd floor reference desk. It includes definitions and clarifications for many literary terms, outlines of British and American literary history, and lists of winners of the Nobel Prize for literature and the Pulitzer Prize for  fiction, poetry, and drama. 

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The most recent editions of  Chicago Manual of Style, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, and The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association are located at the 2nd floor reference desk.