For assistance, please contact Sherry Mahnken at mahnkens@mst.edu

Library Databases

Use these databases to find journal articles and other materials on literature and related topics.

Communication and Mass Media Complete

This database indexes articles in journals related to all aspects of communications, including technical communication. Full text content is available for many journals.

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography includes 55,000 biographies of people who played a significant role in the history of the British Isles. In addition to biographical information from primary and secondary sources, entries are accompanied by bibliographies and are often illustrated with portraits.

JSTOR

JSTOR provides access to the full images (including photos, tables, and graphs) of articles from back issues of a variety of scholarly journals, including literature journals. Coverage extends back to the 19th century for some journals. Recent years' issues are generally not accessible in this database.

MLA Bibliography

MLA indexes articles in the modern languages, literatures, linguistics, and folklore. It includes journals, books, dissertations, and collections of essays. Complete coverage begins in 1963, although basic records for earlier articles in journals available in the JSTOR database are also included in MLA.

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary is the most authoritative and comprehensive dictionary of English in the world. The online dictionary provides information on the meaning, usage, and evolution of over 600,000 words.

Project Muse

Project Muse provides access to the full text of articles from almost 200 journals, many of them in the humanities. Coverage begins in 1993.

Electronic Journals

Free Journals

• CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
  

  A peer-refereed quarterly of scholarship combining comparative literature with cultural studies from Purdue University

• Early Modern Literary Studies
  

  A refereed journal examining English literature, literary culture, and language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

• Erfurt Electronic Studies in English
  

  A refereed journal publishing articles on English literature and language

• Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net
  

  A refereed journal with articles on the literature of nineteenth-century Britain

• Woman Writers
  

  A free online magazine dedicated to women writers that includes both fiction and scholarly articles

Print Resources

Collections of Critical Essays

• American Writers
  Reference PS129 .A55
  

  A collection of critical and biographical articles that covers hundreds of notable American authors from the 17th century to the present day

• British Writers
  Reference PR85 .B688
  

  A collection of critical essays that covers writers who have made significant contributions to British, Irish, and Commonwealth literature from the 14th century to the present day

• Contemporary Authors
  Reference PN451 .C59
  

  Contains biographical information, lists of works, and lists of sources of biographical and critical information for authors in many different fields, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalism, theater, film, and television

• Contemporary Literary Criticism
  Reference PN94 .T95
  

  Includes brief biographies and reprints of critical essays on the works of living authors or authors who died after 1999

• Dictionary of Literary Biography
  Reference PN451 .D434
  

  Provides lengthy career biographies that cover that cover the development of the authors work and reputation; also includes lists of sources of interviews and critical evaluations

• Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800
  Reference PN86 .L56
  

  Provides brief biographies and reprints of critical essays on the works of writers who died between 1400 and 1799

• Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism
  Reference PN92 .N5
  

  Provides brief biographies and reprints of critical essays on the works of writers who died between 1800 and 1899

• Twentieth Century Literary Criticism
  Reference PN94 .T85
  

  Provides brief biographies and reprints of critical essays on the works of writers who died between 1900 and 1999

Other Resources

• Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction
  Reference PN3433.8 .A5 2004
  

  Provides a history of the genre; a critical examination of 1,400 works; and a survey of the secondary literature

• Dictionary of American Young Adult Fiction, 1997-2001
  Reference PS374.Y57 H45 2004
  

  A collection of 741 alphabetically arranged title, author, and character entries covering 290 books and 242 authors

• Encyclopedia of Gothic Literature
  Reference PN3435 .S58 2005
  

  An A-to-Z guide to Gothic literature that covers works and writers from Britain, America, and other countries

• Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy
  Reference PS374.S35 G74 2005
  

  Provides a scholarly discussion of themes and classic works in both sci-fi and fantasy literature

• The Harlem Renaissance: A Gale Critical Companion
  Reference PS153.N5 H245 2003
  

  Discusses social, economic, and political influences; performing arts; periodicals; and visual arts related to the Harlem Renaissance; also includes primary sources

Web Resources

Gateways

• Linguistic Resources on the Internet
  

  Site with a well-organized list of sites relating to various topics in linguistics

• Literary Resources On the Net
  

  A collection of links to sites on the Internet dealing especially with English and American literature that are useful to academics

• Voice of the Shuttle: Literature
  

  Site with briefly annotated links to online resources for literature in English

Collections

• American Verse Project
  

  A searchable and browseable electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920

• Library of Southern Literature
  

  Site containing a wide variety of literary works of the American South published before 1924; also linked from this site is a collection of North American Slave Narratives

• Poetry Archives
  

  A searchable collection of thousands of poems

• Project Gutenberg
  

  A collection of literary works that are in the public domain in the United States

• Project Bartleby
  

  A large full text collection of literature (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry) and reference works that fall within the public domain

• Representative Poetry Online
  

  A site that includes over 3,000 English poems by 500 poets from the Old English period to the work of living poets; based on the book Representative Poetry, published by the University of Toronto Press

• Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875
  

  A collection that attempts to include every novel published in the United States between 1851 and 1875, among them works by important writers such as Twain, Hawthorne, and Melville, as well as many forgotten authors

American Literature Resources

• American Authors
  

  Provides biographies of American authors, links to full-text resources, a literary timeline, a guide to American literary movements, and links to American literature sites

• PAL: Perspectives in American Literature
  

  A guide to American literature, organized by period and subject

English Literature Resources

• Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature
  

  Site containing information about authors and links to online texts for a variety of writers, chiefly medieval, Renaissance, 17th century, and 18th century

Literary Genre Sites

• Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
  

  An index to the contents of 3,900 science fiction anthologies and collections by single authors published prior to 1984

• Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database
  

  A database of materials including "history, criticism, commentary, fan writings and some reviews" (although not book reviews) in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, and weird fiction

• The Literary Gothic
  

  A "guide to all things concerned with literary Gothicism, which includes ghost stories, "classic" Gothic novels and Gothic fiction (1764-1820), and related pre- and post-Gothic and supernaturalist literature written prior to the mid-C20"

Composition Help

• Guide to Grammar and Writing
  

  Site that provides information about grammar and writing; a subsection of the site, Principles of Compostion, discusses the writing process and the structure and types of composition

• The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
  

  Site designed for students and others who want (or need) to improve their writing skills; covers the process of writing from the thinking and planning stages to the finished product

• Online Writing Lab
  

  The website for Purdue's Writing Lab includes handouts, interactive presentations and workshops, and links to other sites, all providing information on topics relating to improving writing

Grammar and Style Guides

• The Elements of Style
  

  Strunk's classic guide to plain English style, focusing on commonly violated rules of usage; hosted by Project Bartleby

• Guide to Citation Style Guides
  

  A collection of links to guides for properly citing Internet resources using the APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian styles

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Last Updated 8/9/2010