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American Literature Research Guide

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  • Reference Books

  • Journals in Print

  • Online Databases

  • Websites

  • Reference Books

    The following is a sample of reference materials held in Anselmo Library's Reference Collection. Use these books to begin your research. Remember reference materials cannot be taken from the library.

    A Handbook to Literature
    REF PN41 .H355 2003

    Cyclopedia of World Authors
    REF PN41 .M26 1958a

    Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
    REF PN41 .M42 1995

    Masterplots: Revised Category Edition, American Fiction Series
    REF PN44 .M32

    A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms
    REF PN44.5.Q56 2006b

    The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage
    REF PN56 .H57 G365 1995

    A History of Literary Criticism
    REF PN86.H23 2005

    The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature
    REF PN471 .B57 1992

    Poetry Criticism
    REF PN1010.P499

    The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
    REF PN1021 .P75 1993

    The Oxford Companion to American Literature
    REF PS21 .H3 1983

    Magill's Survey of American Literature
    REF PS21 .M34 1991

    Contemporary Literary Critics
    REF PS78 .B56 1977

    Cyclopedia of American Literature
    REF PS85 .D7 1965

    Columbia Literary History of the United States
    REF PS92 .C64 1988

    Masterpieces of American Literature
    REF PS94 .M34 1993

    American Women Writers
    REF PS147 .A4

    Asian American Literature
    REF PS153 .A84 A82 1999

    Masterpieces of African-American Literature
    REF PS153 .N5 M264 1992

    Harlem Renaissance and Beyond
    REF PS153 .N5 R65 1990

    The Columbia History of the American Novel
    REF PS371 .C7 1991

    Dictionary of American Literary Characters
    REF PS374 .C43 D5 1990

    Major Characters in American Fiction
    REF PS374 .C43 M35 1996

    Journals in Print

    The following is a list of american literature journals held in print at Quincy College Library. Please check the Online Catalog for holdings. Journals in Quincy College's print collection do not leave the library; copy machines are available.

    American Literature
    Children's Literature in Education

    Online Databases

    Search for information on your topic using the following online databases:

    Contemporary Literary Criticism
    Collection of critical essays on contemporary authors.

    Magill On Literature
    This database is an online source for critical analyses of literature. It also includes brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history of literature. It contains all of Masterplots and Masterplots II, Cyclopedia of World Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, World Philosophers and Their Works, etc.

    Websites

    The Norton Company
    A leading publisher of the popular and reputable Norton Anthology, provides a free website that both compliments the anthology and functions independently with other texts. Research background information on writers and literature, timelines, discussion questions, and quizzes.

    Bartleby
    A searchable reference site handy for locating literature, poetry, essays, word definitions, and other prose pieces, particularly when trying to locate a whole piece from a line or phrase. It includes sources such as the Columbia Encyclopedia, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Gray's Anatomy, Oxford Shakespeare, and World Factbook.

    Voice of the Shuttle
    A humanities research database run by the University of California, Santa Barbara. Click on Literature.

    The Internet Public Library Literary Criticism Collection
    The IPL Literary Criticism Collection contains critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period.