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English Department Click on graphic to link to the English Department page

English Literature Resources

Reference Books

Criticism

Reference books are research tools that lead to sources of information on a topic (e.g., bibliographies, indexes) or provide information directly (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias). The following is a selected list of reference books for this topic:

  • American Poets since World War II (2 pts.) [REF PS323 .A5]
  • The American Short Story:A Critical Survey [REF PS374 .S5 V6]
  • American Short-story Writers since World War II [REF PS374 .S5 A 398 1993]
  • American Women Writers (5 vols.) [REF PS147 .A4]
  • British Short-fiction Writers, 1915-1945 [REF PR829 .B746 1996]
  • Critical Survey of Poetry (8 vols. & supplement) [REF PN 1021.C7 2003]
  • Historical dictionary of postmodernist literature and theater[REF PN771.M36 2007]

    Dictionary of Literary Biography

    There are currently 30 volumes of this series in the library. They are not shelved together, however, but are shelved according to their specific subject. Use 'series title words' to see a complete listing of the titles or search by author using the Literature Resource Center, then choose relevant titles from the list.

  • A Dictionary of Literary Symbols [REF PN56 .S9 F47 1999]
  • A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms [REF PN44.5 .Q56 1999]
  • Drama Criticism (2 vols.) [REF PN1707 .C65]
  • Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature [Ref PN471.W455 2004]
  • Essential Shakespeare [REF DESK PR2894 .C47 1993;1986 edition in REF stacks]

    • Gale Literary Criticism Series

    This series is comprised of several different sets of books. The indexes in each set provide cross-references to the others. Titles held in this library include:

  • Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) [REF PN771.C59]
  • Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) [REF PN771 .T94]
  • Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism (NCLC) [REF PN761.N56]
  • Black Literature Criticism (BLC) [REF PS153 .N5 B556]
  • Black Literature Criticism (HLC) [REF PQ7081 .A1 H573]
  • Poetry Criticism (PC) [REF PN1010 .P499]
  • Short Story Criticism (SSC) [REF PN 3373 .S386]
  • Something About the Author (SATA) [REF PN451 .S6]

    Some of the above titles are available electronically in the Gale Literature Resource Center database:

    https://libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=http://galenet.gale.com

    The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature [Ref PS153.M56 G74 2005] 5 v.

  • Latin American Writers (2 vols.) [REF PQ7081 .A1 L37 1989]
  • The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms [Ref PN44.5.K46 2006]
  • Magill’s Bibliography of Literary Criticism (4 vols.) [REF DESK PN523 .M34]
  • Modern Latin-American Fiction Writers [First series:REF PQ7082 .N7 M55 1992]
        [Second series:REF PQ7082 .N7 M55 1994]
  • Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable [Ref PN43.O94 2005]
  • Shakespeare Index (2 vols.) [REF PR2894 .S24 1992]
  • Twentieth Century Literary Movements Dictionary [REF PN597 .T94 2000]
  • Twentieth-century Caribbean and Black African Writers
        [First series: REF PR9205 .A52 T88 1992]
        [Second series:REF PR9205 .A52 T89 1993]

    • Databases

    Web Based Resources

    Electronic Poetry Center:  Comprehensive site maintained by the University at Buffalo. http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/

    English Literature on the Web:  This page provides links to hundreds of sites pertaining to English Literature arranged by time period. http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EngLit.html

    Literature Resources:  Produced by Louisiana State University, this site provides a number of links to literature-related topics. There are links to guides, bibliographies, l ibrary catalogs, dictionaries, periodicals, style guides and more. There is also a link to an "Author Webliography,"with links to sites about specific authors. http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/lit.html

    Literary Resources on the Net:  This site provides links to sites by literary categories, including Classical and Biblical, Medieval, Renaissance, Eighteenth Century, Romantic, Victorian British, Twentieth Century British and Irish, American, Theatre and Drama, Theory, Women's Literature and Feminism, Ethnicities and Nationalities, other National Literatures, and Bibliography and History of the Book. http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit

    Online Literary Criticism Collection provides links to over 1300 critical and biographical Web sites about American and British literary works from pre-1500 to today. Search by author, title, or period. Sites are all evaluated and some may require special access. http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/

    The Anthology of Middle English Literature (1350-1485) has links to sites about specific authors (Chaucer, Sir Gawain...), and also has links to Medeival plays and lyrics, essays and articles, and links to many additional resources pertaining to this time period. http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/index.html

    Legends covers myths and legends, as well as folk and fairy tales. http://bestoflegends.org/

    Literature, Cognition & the Brain examines cognitive approaches to literature.  The site features six groupings: Bibliography, Abstracts, Features, Work in Progress, Reviews, and Related Sites. Created and maintained by Alan Richardson and Mary Crane (Boston College).  http://www2.bc.edu/~richarad/lcb/

    The Paris Review 50 years of interviews with famous authors. Partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

    Renaissance Dante in print (1472-1629):online collection of 600 printed editions of Dante collected by John Zahm for the University of Notre Dame. http://www.italnet.nd.edu/Dante/

    TEAMS Middle English texts: Important resource for Middle English study and teaching, created by The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages and Medieval Institute Publications with NEH funding. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm

    The Complete Works of William Shakespeare includes the full text of Shakespeare's works, Shakespearean quotations, and links to other Shakespeare pages. http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html

    Voice of the Shuttle
    A web page for humanities research, subcategories within this page include linguistics, literature and literary theory. http://vos.ucsb.edu/


    Writing

    The Online Writing Lab of Purdue University has a section titled Resources for Writers, with links to more than 100 instructional handouts on writing skills and resume help;materials for learning English as a second language;and llinks to other relevant sites. http://owl.english.purdue.edu

    A Glossary of   Literary Terms and a Handbook of Rhetorical Devices This site defines literary terms and rhetorical devices, with quotations which illustrate their use. Robert Harris wrote the site to help students and other writers develop a more sophisticated writing style. http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html

    Wright American Fiction, 1851 - 1875  Digital library of early American fiction hosted by Indiana University. http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/web/w/wright2/

    Catalogs

     
    Our Library Catalog - SUNY New Paltz

    Non-SUNY Libraries

    Other SUNY Libraries

    Southeastern NY Libraries

    Course Guides

    The following are guides listing authoritative resources appropriate for projects and assignments in these courses. Each guide is developed and taught by a librarian for a specific class. The guides may help anyone researching a literature-related topic..

    2008