Eng 212: American Literature and Its Backgrounds
Sources for texts
Lafayette Library Catalog
To find anthologies, use the keyword phrase "literary collections."
WorldCat
Catalog of books, videos, manuscripts, and other materials held by libraries across the country. To find anthologies, search "literary collections" as a subject.
Literature Online
Collection of works of English and American poetry, drama and prose.
Reference sources
Oxford Reference Online
Collection of reference works from Oxford University Press on a wide variety of topics, including mythology, the Bible, saints, proverbs, history, and geography. Also includes English and bilingual dictionaries.
Britannica Online
Web version of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
OED: Oxford English Dictionary
Historical dictionary that "traces a word from its beginnings to the present, showing the varied and changing ways in which it has been used and illustrating the changes with quotations which add to the historical and linguistic record. This can mean that the first sense shown is long obsolete, and that the modern use falls much later in the entry."
American National Biography Online
Scholarly biographical articles on people who have influenced American history and culture. (Does not include information on people still living.)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Scholarly, biographical articles on noteworthy people who inhabited or were connected with the British Isles. (Does not include information on people still living.)
Oxford Music Online
Authoritative reference works on music, including Grove Music Online.
Oxford Art Online
Authoritative reference works on art, including Grove Art Online, and extensive links to images from museums and other sources.
Examples of print sources
There are many, many sources in the reference collection that could prove useful for this assignment. This is just a tiny sampling.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Ref PN43 .B65 1995x
Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology. Ref BL303 .T75 1970
Dictionary of Biblical Allusions in English Literature. Ref PR 145 .F8
Dictionary of Historical Allusions and Eponyms. Ref PN43 .A83 1998
Sources for literary criticism
MLA International Bibliography
Index of scholarly articles, edited books, and dissertations on literature, languages, film studies and folklore. Articles from The Explicator can be especially useful for this project.
Literature Resource Center
Database containing extensive biographical information on authors as well as literary criticism, book reviews, and plot summaries.
Lafayette Library Catalog
Find books that are devoted to criticism of an author or literary work by performing a subject search (not an author search) for the author you are researching. Enter the last name first (e.g., morrison toni). Look for the subheading "criticism and interpretation" to find books that analyze an author's works. Look for a subheading that includes a title to find books about an individual work (e.g., morrison toni beloved).
