Literary Criticism Resources

Reference Books

Critical and biographical information about writers, poets, and dramatists and their works can be found in the following Reference books. All are multivolume works and feature a cumulative index in the last volume of the set.

American Writers (REF PS 129 .A55)

American Women Writers (REF PS 147 .A4)

Black Literature Criticism (REF PS 153 .N5 B556 1992)

British Writers (REF PR 85 .B688)

Contemporary Authors (REF PN 771 .C58)

Contemporary Literary Criticism (REF PN 771 .C59)

Critical Survey of Drama (REF PR 625 .C74 1985)

Critical Survey of Poetry (REF PR 502 .C85)

Dictionary of Literary Biography (REF PS 129 .D481)

Drama Criticism (REF PN 1625 .D72)

Gay and Lesbian Literature (REF PN 56 .H57 G37 1994)

Masterplots (REF PN 44 .M33 1996)

Masterplots II: African-American Literature (REF PS 153 .N5 M264 1994)

Masterplots II: American Fiction (REF PN 846 .M37 1986)

Masterplots II: Drama Series (REF PN 1625 .M36 1990)

Masterplots II: Short Story Series (REF PN 3326 .M27 1986)

Masterplots II: Poetry Series (REF PN 1111 .M36 2002)

Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism (REF PN 761 .N56)

Poetry Criticism (REF PN 1111 .P63)

Shakespearean Criticism (REF PR 2965 .S43)

Short Story Criticism (REF PN 3373 .S386)

Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (REF PN 771 .G27)

Women’s Literature Series (REF PN 471 .M37)

World Authors (REF PN 451 .W67)

Circulating Books

Books by writers and critical books about their works are indexed in One Search, the library's online catalog. To find books written by a certain author, perform an Author search on the system; to find critical works about an author’s writing perform a Subject Keyword search. In both cases, enter the author’s last name first. Unlike the Reference books listed above, these books may be checked out of the library for a three-week period with your college ID.

Electronic Resources

We have a number of databases available for magazine and journal article searches. Performing a subject search in any of these databases should provide you with plenty of information about your topic. EBSCO Academic Search Premier should also provide you with plenty of information about your author or topic.

The following electronic Reference books will also provide helpful information:

• Modern American Literature
• Reference Guide to Short Fiction

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