ENG 444/544 British Women Writers: Encyclopedias & Reference Works
Why Reference Works?
Scholarly reference works are useful for the following:
- An overview of a topic
- Topic ideas for a paper topic or narrowing your topic
- Finding keywords for searches
- Bibliographies for further research
Reference works are good starting points for research, but are rarely cited in research as secondary sources.
Print Resources: Genre, Movements & Historical Context
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The Cambridge history of literary criticism
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Call Number: Library Shelves -- 4th floor (PN86 .C27 1989 )ISBN: 0521300061Publication Date: 1990-01-26 -
Literary Research Guide
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Call Number: PSU Library Reference Collection -- 2nd floor (Z2011 .H34 2008 )ISBN: 0873528085Publication Date: 2008-01-01 -
A Handbook to Literature
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Call Number: PSU Library Reference Collection -- 2nd floor (PN41 .H355 2012 )ISBN: 0205024017Publication Date: 2010-12-31
Author Biography
Full length biographies or composite works with chapters on an author can be found in the Library catalog. Add the keyword 'biography' to your search terms.
Carter, Angela biography
Smith, Zadie biography
Rhys, Jean biography
Woolf, Virginia, biography
Reference sources will include shorter biographies, and will often provide recommended full length works
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Literature Online - LION
Includes reference works, biographical sketches, bibliographies, and secondary criticism of British and American literary works. Offers full text of some novels, poems, dramas, and prose.
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Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new windowConsists of summaries of works, Western literary criticism, and literary movements as well as biographical sketches of authors from the classical period to the present.
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Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new windowProvides reference, literary timelines, and articles on authors, journalists, and critics from all literary periods. Covers literary genres such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism.
Essential Online Reference Sources
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The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature
Provides comprehensive coverage of literature from the Abbey Theatre to Israel Zangwill, covering the entire history of literature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the major literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Latin). It includes substantial accounts of individual authors (e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and detailed histories of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions. -
Oxford Reference OnlineBringing together 2 million digitized entries across Oxford’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias, Oxford Reference is the premier online reference product, spanning 25 different subject areas.
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The John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & CriticismOffers full text articles on critics, and literary theorists as well as critical and theoretical schools and movements.
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Oxford Bibliographies Online
Includes scholarly bibliographies that provide research guidance in several topical areas. Our current subscriptions cover the classics, Jewish studies, Islamic studies, medieval studies, the Renaissance and the Reformation, British and Irish literature, childhood studies, Chinese studies, cinema and media studies, American literature, education, communication, linguistics, philosophy, public health, and international relations. In the example to the left, see the section of the entry on Modernism that addresses various critical agendas most often associated with Modernism.
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Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new windowCovers the history of the English language. Contains word definitions, pronunciation, history, and language of origin. The OED is a comprehensive record of the English language and generally regarded as its definitive dictionary.
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Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new windowProvides reference, literary timelines, and articles on authors, journalists, and critics from all literary periods. Covers literary genres such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism.
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Literature Online - LION This link opens in a new windowIncludes reference works, biographical sketches, bibliographies, and secondary criticism of British and American literary works. Offers full text of some novels, poems, dramas, and prose.
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Literature Criticism Online
Consists of summaries of works, Western literary criticism, and literary movements as well as biographical sketches of authors from the classical period to the present.