World Languages & Literature: Find Books

While the Portland State Library has a large collection of books, articles, and journals, we may not have a specific item you are looking for. In that case, you may be able to get it for you from another library.

• If you find an item in the catalog and our copy is not available you can Request from other libraries

Use the search box on the Ebooks page to quickly find books the Library has available online. 

In library catalogs, add the phrase "criticism and interpretation" to searches on your author as subject or to the particular work.  Books of criticism (as opposed ot individual journal articles )can be particularly useful as they pull together the analyses of several scholars in a single volume.

Larsen, Nella 1891-1964  -- Criticism and interpretation.

Pynchon, Thomas, 1937-   -- Criticism and interpretation.

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Arendt, Hannah, 1906-1975 -- Criticism and interpretation..

Subject headings allow you to search library catalogs for materials on a particular topic. Often subject heading searching can be more productive than searching by simple keywords.  Simply put, subject headings are words and phrases making up a controlled vocabulary to categorize books by subject field.  They often describe the contents of books in ways titles do not, which often may be very general. Using a keyword search will identify items containing those keywords, such as the author, notes, publisher, etc.

In terms of researching literary topics, critical works are classified and sorted by author's name, dates of birth and death, and the subheading, Criticism and Interpretation.  Here are some examples:

Natsume, Sōseki, 1867-1916 -- Criticism and interpretation.

García Márquez, Gabriel, 1928- -- Criticism and interpretation.

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 - Criticism and interpretation