English Literature

Reference Books

Literary Theory and Criticism

• Encyclopedia of literary critics and criticism.1999. Reference 801.95 E56e

• Critical survey of literary theory. 1987. Reference 801.45 C86M

• A Glossary of contemporary literary theory. 2000. Reference 801.95 H399g

• The Bedford glossary of critical and literary terms. 3rd ed. 2009. Reference 803 B39M

• Contemporary literary criticism. 1973. Reference 809.04 C76

• Twentieth-Century literary criticism. 1978. Reference 809.04 T91

• Nineteenth-century literary criticism. 1981. Reference 809.04 N62

• World literature criticism: 1500 to the present: a selection of major authors... 1992. Reference 809 W92w

• Black literature criticism: excerpts from criticism of the most significant works of black authors. 1992. Reference 808.8896 B56

• Hispanic literature criticism. 2 volumes. 1994. Reference 860.9868 H67h

Other Literary reference materials

• Literary research guide: An Annotated listing of reference sources in English literary studies. 2008. Ref 820.9 H22l
  An updated version of James Harner's essential bibliography for anyone serious about research in English and American literature. It highlights every type of research material and gives annotations as to specific resource's usefulness to study.

• A Handbook to literature. 11th ed. 2009. Reference 803 H19L

• Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of literature. 1995. Reference 803 M56m

• A Dictionary of writers and their works. 2001. Reference 809 C83

• Dictionary of literary biography. 20+ volumes. Reference 921 D56L
  One of the best known and most well-respected collections of literary reference works, the Dictionary of Literary Biography has been around for years, and is worth a trip to the Reference collection.

• Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of allusions. 1999. Reference 803 W371m

• Dictionary of imaginary places. 2000. Reference 809.93372 M31d

• The World's best books, Homer to Hemingway; 3000 books of 3000 years. 1953. Refernce 016 D56

• Literature and its times. Profiles of notable literary works and the historical events that influenced them. 6 volumes. 1997. Reference 809.93358 M913L
  Contains introduction to works, plot synopses and character lists, how each relates to its author's life, other contemporary works, and the historical time period in which it was written.


• Banned books series. 4 volumes. 1998. Reference 098.1 B21b* (some will have additional call number letters on end)

• Encyclopedia of literature and politics: Censorship, revolution, and writing. 2005. Reference 809.93358 En19L
  "From Isabel Allende to Emile Zola and from Shakespeare to Sartre, literary works have often engaged political issues, and many political writings give close attention to literary concerns. Explores the complex relationship between literature and politics." The more than 500 articles "authors, critics, theorists, and historical figures; major literary works; national literatures and important literary movements; broad critical categories; and specific themes, concepts, and genres" from ancient Greek to the present.

Finding Books

• Online Catalog
  • Find books, as well as a variety of other materials in the TU Libraries.
  • Use the Advanced search option to specify material format, campus, language, and date range.

• WorldCat
  • Find books, among other things, to request via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Finding Articles

• MLA International Bibliography
  Indexes over 4,000 scholarly journals and series in the fields of literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. Includes citations, but no abstracts.


• JSTOR
  Provides keyword searching for over 100 important scholarly journals in a variety of disciplines. Particularly strong in Arts & Humanities. Has access to back issues of the journals up through about 3 to 5 years ago.


• Project MUSE
  This collection of 400 journals represent the publications of 100 not-for-profit organizations. Every article available in Project MUSE is in full-text, meaning you will immediately be able to view, print, or save the article for later use.

Finding Journals

• List of Journals, Magazines and Newspapers
  Search by journal title keyword for online full-text journals, and to see what we have in print in the library.


• Click here for a Language and Literature Subject Search in the List of Journals, etc., to find out what journals (and how many) we have available both in print and online. Click on the blue links to enter the actual list of titles. The numbers in parentheses beside the subject indicate how many journal titles are included in that subject area. It offers subdisciplines, so browse through to find more specific journals for your topic.

Other Research Tools

• Credo Reference
  A conglomeration of specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias that allows you to search for definitions and encyclopedia articles, as well as develop ideas for expanding or refining a research strategy.

• Oxford Reference Premium Online  
  Oxford University Press produces a number of extremely useful reference materials, many of which they have made available here. You can search by keyword, but you can also choose particular subjects and from there, particular books within which to search. This willl provide you with all sorts of background and broad spectrum information on a particular topic.

• Biography Resource Center  
  Find background information about people, authors, famous personalities, and others. Search by first or last name. 

Internet Resources

For more Web resources on the topic of English and Literature, please visit our English and Literature web sites page.

• Jack Lynch's Literary Resources on the Net
  Maintained by Rutger's Jack Lynch, this compiles excellent web sources focusing on English and American literature.


• Voice of the Shuttle: English Literature
  Voice of the Shuttle stands as one of the most useful portals, searchable by subject, this section focuses on scholarly English literature sites.


• Web Gateways and Search Engines: UC-Berkeley
  Compendium of web search tools and gateways on the Net, UCB indexes both general literature and subject specific tools, i.e., Chaucer Metapage.


• MIT Literature Resources
  Impressive collection of web literature resources categorized by period and genre.


• English: Web Resources (Western Michigan University)
  Some unique poetry sites included on this list that don't appear on others.


• Intute: Arts & Humanities
  Browsable by resource type, time period, heading or peruse a list of general resources for the study of English. Compiled by subject specialists in the UK, the intended audience is "lecturers, researchers and students within UK higher and further education," yet American students can find extremely useful free web resources here, as well.


• The Making of America (MoA) from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
  Provides full-text searching for primary sources (over 10,000 digital books and 2,000 journals) in American history, highlighting these subjects: education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

Citation Help

One of the least favorite aspects of research papers are the citations, documenting the sources where you gleaned your information. To make that a little easier, the Library offers a few resources.

• MLA handbook for writers of research papers. 2003. Ref 808.027 G35M
  The standard source for citation style in literature and writing, published by the Modern Language Association.

• The Citation Style Guide is a place where you can find call numbers for print Style Manuals and Handbooks, as well as online help from several different universities around the States. Check it out and see if it helps!


• RefWorks
  is a Citation Management program. Fully available online, and linked from the Library's home page, it allows you to keep it all ELECTRONIC. Download your citations from the various databases you're using into RefWorks. This program will create the Works Cited page for you with little effort. In a database, look for the option to EXPORT - that is where you'll find this gem of a program.

• Automatically Generated Citations can be found in our Library Catalog (to the right of the item on the Results page), as well as in most EBSCO databases (like Academic Search Premier, PsycINFO, Communications and Mass Media Complete, etc.). Most databases either provide an instant citation in a couple of different styles, or they allow Exporting to RefWorks (see above). Ask a Librarian for more help in managing your citations and creating your bibliographies and works cited pages faster.


• WorldCat.org
  "Cite this item" within individual item record lists the citation in APA, MLA, Chicago and more.


• The Writing Center is also a solid resource. Available in the Library, this is run by the English department. If you'd like face-to-face help individually with citing or any aspect of writing and editing your paper, the Writing Center is the place to go. For more information, see their page on the Portal, or you can contact them at writingctr@taylor.edu.

Product descriptions on this page are incorporated from book reviews and product descriptions from various sources.

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