English Resources

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English

In addition to having most required books for the English department in the library collection, the library has an extensive literary criticism collection both in print and online.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

The best database to start with is Literature Resource Center, one of the Gale databases. This contains articles on both authors and works of literature from magazines, journals and references books. Use it to look up biographical information on authors as well as literary criticism on novels, plays, short stories and poetry. You may search by either author or title. Do an advanced search if you are not sure of the exact title of a work. You may even search by author type such as Hispanic American or Chilean.
 Twayne’s and Scribners databases (also from Gale,) contain long critical essays on many authors. Litfinder contains the complete text of poems, short stories and essays, plus some literary criticism.

Reference Books

These are books that may be checked out after school for overnight use only. All are located in the reference collection, south side of the library. Most are in the 800’s, so browsing through this section can help locate many likely sources. Listed below are some of the major and most useful works:

• Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC). R 809 C76 Vols. 1 - 
  Contains lengthy excerpts from criticism of the works of novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers and scriptwriters living as of Jan. 1960. Use the cumulative index in the latest volume to find all references to an author. Use the Cumulative Title Index to find criticisms of specific titles.
• Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. R 809 T91. Vols. 1- 68
  Similar to CLC except it covers authors who died between 1900-1959. Contains both modern criticism and early twentieth century criticism.
• European Writers. R 809 Eu7 
  American Writers. R 810.9 Am3
  British Writers. R 820.9 B77
  Each set contains essays giving substantial biographical and literary information on well-known European, American or British authors.
• Drama for Students. R 809.2 D79
  Novels for Students. R 809.3 N85
  Poetry for Students. R 808.1 P75
  Short Stories for Students. R 809.3 Sh8
  Each set contains analysis, context and criticism on commonly studied dramas, novels, poems or short stories.
• Science Fiction Writers. R 809.3 B61s
  Supernatural Fiction Writers. R 809.3 Su7
  St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers. R823.0872 S2
  Critical studies of the major authors in these genres from the early nineteenth century to the present.
• African American Writers. R 819.9 Af8
  For each author, contains a biography, survey of major writings, and assessment of the author’s work. Includes slave narratives.
• Black Literature Criticism. R 810.9 B56
  Excerpts from criticism of the most significant works of black authors over the past 200 years.
• American Women Writers. R 810.9 Am32
  Brief biographies and critical discussions of the body of work of American women writers from colonial times to the present.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography. (Throughout the reference 800’s)
  These volumes are divided by topic, genre and nationality, and discuss a writer’s entire career. They show the development of styles and themes in an author’s works. Cumulative index in each volume. Also indexed in the CLC cumulative indexes.
• Shakespeare for Students. R 822.3 XSh1
  Essays and excerpts from 20th century critics of the most popular plays.

Circulating Books

To find circulating books on a particular author, you should use the library catalog. Enter an author’s name as a keyword to find a list of books by or about that author. Write down the call number of any books that you wish to find. They will be in the 800’s in the stacks. Ask for help if you have any problems locating these books.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: The Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines

There is plenty of information on Ernest J. Gaines and plenty of critical discussion of his works available in the Saint Francis Library. This information is available both in print form and online through the library databases.

Reference Books

• Black Literature Criticism. R810.0 B56. Volume 2 contains information on Ernest J. Gaines.
• Contemporary Literary Criticism. R 809 C76. Use the author index in the latest volume to find which volumes contain information on Gaines’ work. There is a separate title index filed at the beginning of this set where you can check for individual titles by Gaines.
• Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History. R 973.0496. Volume 3 contains information on Ernest J. Gaines.
• Novels for Students. R 809.3 N85. Use the Cumulative Index in the last volume to find information on The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Gathering of Old Men and A Lesson Before Dying

Circulating Books

• Ernest J. Gaines: a Critical Companion. 813.54 G12.
• Voices from the Quarters: the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines. 813.54 G12.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

All library databases may be accessed from the library’s database page. The most useful one for this assignment is Literature Resource Center found under Galenet. You can enter an author or click on Title and enter any title. Various resources will be displayed. Notice that when you enter an author’s name, the first items displayed are biographical articles about that author. Near the top of the page is a tab that says Literary Criticism, Articles and Work Overviews. Click on this tab to see these three separate lists of articles. All articles listed are full-text. Simply click on the titles of the articles to see the text. Complete citations are given for each separate article.

As always, when you are researching, try to find several items that are appropriate. Remember, research often involves looking different places and discarding much of what you find! The library has many different items about this and other authors, so you should be able to find enough for your assignment. We also have books on how to write papers and information on doing your bibliography correctly.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: Social Studies: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Much has been written about Mary Shelley and about her most famous work, Frankenstein. The Saint Francis High School Library has much of this information available in both print and online formats.

Books

To find books about either Mary Shelley or about Frankenstein, you should try entering the word “Frankenstein” as a Keyword into the library catalog. Also, try entering Shelley, Mary as a keyword to find biographies on her. You will find books such as:

• Mary Shelley: her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. 823.7 Sh4f
• Spirit Like a Storm: the Story of Mary Shelley. B

Reference Books

• British Writers. R 820.9 B77
• Gothic Literature. R 820.911 G71
• Novels for Students. R 809.3 N85
• Science Fiction Writers. R 809.3 B61s

The circulating books on Shelley are either in the library or on reserve at the library desk. If on reserve, please ask to use them. Books set on reserve may only be checked out one at a time after 3:00 p.m. and must be returned by 8:00 a.m. the next day. As always, if you need help, please ask any member of the library staff to assist you. You should be able to find enough information right here in your Saint Francis Library.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

All library databases may be accessed from the library’s database page. The best one for this assignment is Galenet. Click on this to see a list of databases. Scroll down until you find Literature Resource Center. Click on this. Enter “Shelley, Mary” in the box.

The first list that will come up is biographical information about Shelley. You may or may not have this already from other sources. It is always interesting to read about an author’s life to see if it informed and influenced his or her work.

Note the tabs at the top of the page. The second one is Literary Criticism, Articles and Work Overviews. Click on this to find essays and articles on Shelley’s work. These are then divided into literary criticism, articles and work overviews. Literary criticism comes up first and is usually the most valuable. Most of these criticisms will be on Frankenstein as it is, by far, Shelley’s most famous work. All of these are full-text and may be accessed by clicking on them. Not all of the items labeled articles are valuable, but it is worth checking them as, frequently, some literary criticism is found here also.

Note that the full citation is given for your bibliography.

If you are unsure how to write a citation in MLA format, there are books in the library - MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. R 808.027 G35m.- and there is a link on the library’s web page under the "English" heading.

Note that since this is a subscription database, all of these criticisms and articles have been selected as well written and/or valuable to the study of Shelley’s work. However, since so much is available, you will need to read through many items, and then select what you want. This is RESEARCH! You look at many things and spend time searching to find a few valuable items. 

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: Friday Night Lights and Moneyball

The Saint Francis Library has a large collection of literary criticism, both in print and online. However, both of these books are non-fiction works by lesser-known authors. This means it is not always easy to find criticisms of them. There are not any books devoted to their style, themes, etc. Nor are there biographies of the authors. However, all is not lost! Both these books were critically reviewed during the year they were published, and these reviews are available in some of the online databases the library subscribes to.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

The first place to look for any book is the Galenet Literature Resource Center. Go to the library’s resource page and click on the word Galenet in the middle of the page. A list of databases will come up. Scroll down until you find Literature Resource Center. Click on this, and then click on Title. Enter the title of the book you are interested in.

• Friday Night Lights

  There is one biographical article about H.G. Bissinger and this, his most famous, work. Click on the Literary Criticism tab to find four articles listed. Only the last one is actual criticism of this book.

  Note that this book was published in 1990. That would have been the year that critical reviews were published in popular newspapers and magazines. Fortunately these are available. For magazines, you should again use Galenet, and go the General Reference Center, the first database on the list. Click Keyword on the left side of the page, and then enter “Friday Night Lights” in the box. You should limit your dates to 1990-1991, and click the box labeled “to articles with text” to avoid getting lists of articles that do not have the full-text available. You will find four articles, only one of which was already in Literature Resource Center. All of these are full-text – just click on the title to get the full article and the citation needed for your bibliography.

  For newspaper articles from 1990, use the LexisNexis database, also located on the library’s home page. Click on News, then on General. Enter “Friday Night Lights” in the top box. Then, to get those crucial reviews from 1990, limit your search by typing 1990 into both the from and to box under date. Now, search. Twenty-five articles are listed. You can begin at the bottom to read the first reviews of the book in respected newspapers like the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Christian Science Monitor.

  You might want to read articles that discuss the problems of the Permian team and the threats to the author from disgruntled Odessans who felt his book contributed to the teams ban from the next year’s playoffs. For this book, you might also want to check for articles in 2004 because a popular film based on the book was released that year, and some of the film critics may discuss the book as well.

• Moneyball

  You should do the same thing with this book; however, keep in mind that it is much more recent. It was published in 2003, and many of the articles are not yet listed in Literature Resource Center. For this reason, you will need to depend more on General Reference Center and LexisNexis (remember, full-text, up-to-date newspaper articles are best found in LexisNexis.) Limit your articles to 2003 and 2004 for the best ones.

For both these books, remember that while there are many articles about them, critical discussion is harder to find. Look for commentary on their style and readability, their clarity for non-football/baseball fans, and the accuracy of what was reported.

Using the Internet 

There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but do remember that, unlike the library databases, anyone can put anything they wish up on the open Internet. If you find something there, you should carefully check the site where you found it. See if the author gives his/or her credentials. Is the person a well-known sports writer, an English professor or a writer for a well-respected magazine or newspaper? If so, their comments are probably useful. However, beware of individual’s sites and publishers’ advertisements masquerading as critical reviews.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: Poets of the Harlem Renaissance

Reference Books

• Poetry for Students. R 808.1 P75
• Contemporary Literary Criticism. R 809 C76
• Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. R 809 T91
• African American Writers. R 810.9 Af8
• American Writers. R 810.9 Am3
• American Women Writers. R 810.9 Am32
• Black Literature Criticism. R 810.9 B56
• Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. R 810.9 D56 (vol. 51 of DLB)
• Harlem Renaissance: a Gale Critical Companion. (3 vols.) R 810.9896 H22
• Notable Black American Women. R 920 N84
• Dictionary of American Biography. R 920.073 Am3

Circulating Books

• Book of American Negro Poetry. 811.08 J636
• Black American Writers in France: 1840-1980. 810.9 F11b
• Black Poets of the United States. 811.08 W126
• Kaleidoscope: Poems by American Negro Poets. 811.08 H32K
• Modern Black Poets. 811.09 G35m
• Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. 810 B17m
• Native Sons; a Critical Study of Twentieth Century Black American Authors. 810.9 M33n
• Poetry of Black America. 811.08 Ad7p
• Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. 810.8 H22

Using the book catalog, (Library World) look up any individual poets you are interested in by entering their name as a keyword. This will give you any biographies, criticisms and/or books of just their poetry available in the Saint Francis Library. For example:

• My Soul’s High Song: the Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance. 811 C89m
• Langston Hughes. 818 H87xb
• Selected Poems. Langston Hughes, 811 H87s

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

Galenet
Best databases are Literature Research Center and Biography Resource Center. Click on either one and enter the name of the person you wish to research.

Litfinder
The library subscribes to a new database that contains some of the poems of all of the Harlem Renaissance poets, (as well as other poets, short story writers and essayists.) Enter the name of the poet you are interested in. Short biographies, some of the authors’ poems, and some critical information are given.

Web Sites

Use any search engine and enter the term (Harlem Renaissance) or (Harlem Renaissance)+poetry to find many sites on this subject.

Some particularly useful sites are:

• http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
• http://www.poets.org/index.php
• http:/www.fatherryan.org/harlemrenaissance
• http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/9intro.html

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: Critical Studies of Literature – Literary Criticism

Reference Books

These are books that, generally, do not check out of the library. All may be photocopied. All are located in the reference collection, south side of the library. Most are in the 800’s, so browsing through this section can help locate many likely sources. Listed below are some of the major and most useful works:

• Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC). R 809 C76
  Contains lengthy excerpts from criticism of the works of novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers and scriptwriters living as of Jan. 1960. Use the cumulative index in the latest volume to find all references to an author. Use the Cumulative Title Index to find criticisms of specific titles.
• Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. R 809 T91. Vols. 1-68
  Similar to CLC except it covers authors who died between 1900-1959. Contains both modern criticism and early twentieth century criticism.
• European Writers. R 809 Eu7 
  American Writers. R 810.9 Am3
  British Writers. R 820.9 B77
  Each of these sets contains essays giving substantial biographical and literary information on well-known European, American or British authors.
• Drama for Students. R 809.2 D79
  Novels for Students. R 809.3 N85
  Poetry for Students. R 808.1 P75
  Short Stories for Students. R 809.3 Sh8
  Each set contains analysis, context and criticism on commonly studied dramas, novels, poems or short stories.
• Science Fiction Writers. R 809.3 B61s
  Supernatural Fiction Writers. R 809.3 Su7
  Critical studies of the major authors in these genres from the early nineteenth century to the present.
• African American Writers. R 819.9 Af8
  For each author, contains a biography, survey of major writings, and assessment of the author’s work. Includes slave narratives.
• Black Literature Criticism. R 810.9 B56
  Excerpts from criticism of the most significant works of black authors over the past 200 years.
• American Women Writers. R 810.9 Am32
  Brief biographies and critical discussions of the body of work of American women writers from colonial times to the present.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography. (Throughout the reference 800’s)
  These volumes are divided by topic, genre and nationality, and discuss a writer’s entire career. They show the development of styles and themes in an author’s works. Cumulative index in each volume. Also indexed in the CLC cumulative indexes.
• Shakespeare for Students. R 822.3 XSh1
  Essays and excerpts from 20th century critics of the most popular plays.

Circulating Books

To find circulating books on a particular author, you should use the library catalog. Enter an author’s name as a keyword to find a list of books by or about that author. Write down the call number of any books that you wish to find. They will be in the 800’s in the stacks. Ask for help if you have any problems locating these books.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

Essays and magazine articles, book reviews from magazines and newspapers, as well as Internet sites may be accessed from the library’s computers. Be careful when using the general Internet, as you will find summaries of books and publishers’ advertisements as well as critical reviews.

Galenet
Click on the GaleNet icon on the library’s database page. There are several useful databases listed here. The largest is Literature Resource Center. This database contains 90% of the articles in Contemporary Literary Criticism, plus most of Contemporary Authors, Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, some other magazine and newspaper articles, and recommended Websites on certain authors and their works. The next databases are Twayne’s Authors Series and Scribner’s Writers Series. The first contains the full-text of 200 frequently used Twayne Literary Masters books on world, English and American authors – 600 individual titles. Scribners has 15-20 page signed essays on more than 1600 authors and literary genres.

Other useful Gale databases are General Reference Centerand Expanded Academic IndexASAP. These contain full text articles from many magazines and newspapers. They include critical book reviews of newer books. Expanded Academic Index ASAP also contains articles from literary magazines that discuss a wide range of authors, both recent and older. To search, enter the name of the author or the name of the particular work you are interested in.

Biography Resource Center is also available from Gale. If you need biographical information on an author or any one else, this is a great place to check.

Lexis-Nexis
Click on the Lexis-Nexis Scholastic Universe icon on the library’s database page. Contains full text articles from many newspapers, some magazines and news services. Includes book reviews from papers such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Search by the name of an author or a particular work. You may need to limit searches to a particular source or time period.

Using the Internet

Always be careful when using the open Internet. There are some wonderful sites out there for all subjects, there are some excellent government sites, especially for primary sources, (see the American Memory site from the Library of Congress) but there is also false and misleading information. Always check the author of a website and see if he/she gives his qualifications. Check the sponsor of a site – many commercial companies sponsor sites that are full of advertising.

Be sure you cite your sources carefully whether they are from books, periodicals or Internet sites. For information on MLA style, see the library’s home page

Online Literary Criticism Collection (part of the Internet Public Library).
Links to over 4,000 critical and biographical sites on American and British authors.

Librarians’ Index to the Internet – literature.
The Librarians’ Index to the Internet is the best available directory of websites, period. All sites are evaluated, new sites constantly added. Useful for all subjects, the literature section will lead you to some great sites on various authors and genres.

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the United States at the time of Huckleberry Finn (1840)

The library has many books available on these topics. On occasion, the library provides a cart of books reserved for a specific class. Once the class project concludes, the books will be available in the library for checkout or library use.

If you wish to find books in the library, please use the library catalog. You can enter the key words: “Huckleberry Finn” or “Mark Twain” to find books by and about Mark Twain and to find entire books which discuss The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Most of these books are located in the stacks under the call number 813.4 T… There are also Reference Books available in the Reference area.

Books about the United States during the time of Huckleberry Finn are found under various topics such as United States, History; Slavery; Underground Railroad; Mississippi River. The best call numbers to browse for these topics are 973.5 – 973.7 for United States History and 326 for slavery. Other titles may be found in 917.7, 305.5 – 305.8, 306.3, and 342.730873.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

The library also subscribes to several databases, which are useful for researching these topics. They may be accessed from any school computer by going to the library’s web page and clicking on Galenet, or from home with the username and password. Under Galenet - Literature Research Center has information on Mark Twain and many articles and criticisms of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Click on the database and then on Title. Enter “Huckleberry Finn” and click on the first choice. Note that there are 17 entries under Literary Criticism and 27 Articles (click on the green tabs labeled either Literary Criticism or Articles to go between these.) Note that there are criticisms from books, journals and magazines – some from the 1880’s. Good websites are also listed under Additional Resources.

The History Resource Center

U.S., (also one of the Galenet databases.) is an additional useful resource. Click on this database and enter a word, such as slavery, in the Basic Search box. Finally, the Student Resource Center: Gold, (also a Galenet database) is a useful resource. Enter any term in the Basic Search box. Some of these articles may duplicate those found in History Resource Center. 

Between the books in the Library and the Library Databases, you should have enough information for a report. Please ask the librarians for help if you have any questions.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: Athol Fugard’s Master Harold and the Boys

Books

Begin your search by using the library catalog and typing in Fugard as a subject. This will give you books about the author and his works. To obtain the works by this author, type in Fugard as an author.

You will find two books about this author:

• The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard from South Africa to the World. 822 F957 xw
• Master Harold and the Boys. 822 F957m xw

The library also has a large Reference collection of books containing literary criticism. Two sets are useful for this research:

Drama for Students. R 809.2 D79. Contains complete analysis, explanation and historical contexts for plays. Also will have several critical essays by various authors on each play. Look in the most recent volume (the one with the highest number,) to find an author/title index. Look up either Fugard, Athol or Master Harold and the Boys to see if any volume in this set contains this play.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. R 809 C76. Contains information and critical articles on various modern authors. Use latest volume to look up Fugard, Athol in the index. This will list all volumes containing information on this author. If you wish to limit yourself to just information on Master Harold…, use the Title Index located at the beginning of this set. Look up the title for Volume and page numbers where Master Harold…, is mentioned.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

To quickly obtain reliable, academic discussions of this play, you should use the library’s Literature Resource Center database. All library databases may be accessed from the library’s database page. Click on Galenet.  Then page down the list of databases until you see Literature Resource Center.  Click on this. 

Click on title, and enter “Master Harold and the Boys”and check all words entered. This last step is important – you don’t want every play with the word Master or Harold in the title, but you don’t want to check exact title either as this title is sometimes written with or without quotation marks which can limit what you will find. 

Notice that the first items are biographical and critical discussions of Athol Fugard and his work.  It is usually useful to read about an author’s background to see if and how it has affected his work.  This is especially important with Fugard, as his background has heavily influenced all his works. 

Now notice that next “tab” which says Literary Criticism, Articles, & Work Overviews. Click on this and begin reading literary criticism of Master Harold. 

Need more?  Try the Articles section, which contains some Criticism and some announcements of new editions, audio books, etc. All of these items are full-text and contain a complete citation for your bibliography. That is, the entire article is there and information is given as to the original source of the information.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: Romantic Poets

Books

The Romantic Period in literature, art, music and philosophy generally covers the latter part of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. There are many writers, artists and musicians that are considered “Romantic.” If you need a definition or explanation of Romanticism, any standard encyclopedia will give you one. More specific definitions may be found in:

• Encyclopedia of World Art.  R 703 En1
• Oxford Companion to Art.  R 703 Ox2 (less complicated definition)
• New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. R780.3 N42
• Benet’s Readers Encyclopedia.  R803 B43r
• Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  R 103 En1p

Once you have the name of a person you are interested in, you can search for books by and about that person in the library catalog.

You can search for any of the romantic poets by entering his name into the book catalog as a Keyword.  This will give you a list of any books about that poet and any books of their poetry that are in the Saint Francis Library collection. 

Some examples of available books are:

• Romantic Rebel: the Story of Nathaniel Hawthorne.  B H399h
• Edgar Allan Poe.  813 P75xb
• The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns. 821 B93
• Discussions of William Blake.  821 B58xg

Using the Internet 

If you need a good chronology of the Romantic Period, you might want to try: http://www.english.ucsb.edu:591/rchrono/

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

Using the Saint Francis databases can also be very helpful. From the library’s web page, click on Galenet. Scroll down until you see Literature Research Center. All the Romantic poets are in this database. Both biographical and critical information is available. The Twayne’s and Scribner’s databases are also useful for romantic authors.

If you are researching artists or musicians of the Romantic Period, you might want to use the Biography Resource Center – also part of Galenet – to find information about their lives and careers.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: English: World Literature

There are many places to find works of world authors as well as some critical comments and biographical information on these authors. Biographical information doesn’t just give you basic facts about an author. It can tell you some of the influences on that author and give you clues as to why he/she wrote the kind of literature he did, why certain themes were important, and what outside events influenced him. For instance, did an author live through a war, did he/she grow up in poverty or affluence, did he/she have a stable family? These are all things that will influence an author’s works. Likewise, literary criticism may give you some insights into a work, which you had not considered.

Biographical Information

One of the best and easiest sources to use is Biography Resource Center. This may be found by going to the Library’s resource page, clicking on Galenet, middle of the page, and then scrolling down until you see Biography Resource Center. Click to open this database, and then enter the name of the author you are researching.

Books

Entire books on one author are found in the library. Both biographies and literary criticism can be found by using the book catalog. Enter the author’s last name as a keyword, note the call number of the book and search the shelves. Check the reference section for books containing short biographies and literary criticism of many authors. These are all in the 800’s. Also found in the reference section is Encyclopedia of World Biography, R920 En1. Ask for help if you cannot find something.

Databases: Literary Criticism

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

These databases, also part of Galenet, contain both biographical information and literary criticism on many authors. The largest is Literature Resource Center. This database contains 90% of the articles in Contemporary Literary Criticism, plus most of Contemporary Authors, Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, some other magazine and newspaper articles, and recommended websites on certain authors and their works. The next databases are Twayne’s Authors Series and Scribner’s Writers Series. The first contains the full-text of 200 frequently used Twayne Literary Masters books on world, English and American authors – 600 individual titles. Scribners has 15-20 page signed essays on more than 1600 authors and literary genres.

Books, Poetry, Short Stories

Check the book catalog by entering the author’s last name, first name. If you cannot find a book you want, try checking nearby public libraries. Most of them have their catalogs available on the web, so they can be checked from home to see what titles they have in their collections.

Selections of the following authors’ works are available in the Lancer Library:

• Achebe, Chinua
• Aeschylus
• Alvarez, Julia (not on list, but acceptable)
• Aristophanes
• Balzac, Honore de
• Camus, Albert
• Chekhov, Anton
• Cocteau, Jean
• Dinesen, Isak
• Dostoevsky, Fyodor
• Dumas, Alexander
• Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
• Glass, Gunter
• Gordimer, Nadine
• Ibsen, Henrik
• Kafka, Franz
• Lessing, Doris
• Maupassant, Guy de
• Narayan, R.K.
• Neruda, Pablo
• Paton, Alan
• Paz, Octavio
• Sappho
• Solzhenitsyn, Alexander
• Sophocles
• Tolstoy, Leo

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!