Research InfoGuide for Literary Criticism
Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works. The criticism is typically in the form of a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can, at times, be considered literary criticism. Criticism may examine an author‘s writings as a whole or may look at a particular literary work. Finding literary criticism can be challenging. This info guide is designed to help identify sources of literary criticism.
Library Catalog
The Gale Group publishes several series of literary criticism. These volumes usually include brief biographical information on an author, a listing of major works, and a variety of excerpts from critical essays written about the author and works. A free on-line index to the Gale series, is available at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/LitIndex. Other popular series include Frank Magill’s Masterplots and Criticial Surveys.
- Contemporary Literary Criticism
- Includes authors now living, and those who died after 1960.
- Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
- Includes authors who died between 1900 and 1959.
- Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism
- Includes authors who died between 1800 and 1899.
- Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism
- Includes authors from antiquity through 1399.
When searching for books in the PINES online catalog, the best way to find good sources of information is to perform a subject search. Subject searches look for the Library of Congress Subject Headings assigned to a particular book. These headings help you find books which are specifically about your topic.
Good subject headings for literary criticism often include the words “criticism and interpretation” or “history and criticism.” Examples of useful subject headings for literary criticism include:
- Hurston, Zora Neale Criticism and interpretation
- A PINES search example using author's name plus “criticism and interpretation.”
- Russian literature History and criticism
- A PINES search example using a genre of literature plus “history and criticism.”
Research Databases
- The American Humanities Index
- The American Humanities Index provides cover-to-cover indexing of more than 700 English language (primarily American and Canadian) literary, scholarly and creative journals that have been available in print since 1975. Most are either not indexed elsewhere or are indexed only partially in other indexing services. This database provides citation information for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems and fiction. Photographs, paintings and illustrations are also referenced.
- Literature Online Reference Edition
- Literature Online Reference Edition is a collection of literary reference and criticism resources, including biographies, author bibliographies, Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL), essays from New Essays on the American Novel, and full-text articles from 103 literature journals.
Web Sites
- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- “The Cambridge History of English and American Literature is considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published on writings in the English language. Compiled over fourteen years, from 1907 to 1921, the Cambridge History contains over 303 chapters and 11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing. The set encompasses a wide selection of writing on orators, humorists, poets, newspaper columnists, religious leaders, economists, Native Americans, song writers, and even non-English writing, such as Yiddish and Creole.”
- Literary Criticism Collection
- This Internet Public Library (IPL) collection provides links to online sources of biography, bibliography, and criticism about major authors and works written worldwide. The most comprehensive coverage is in American and British authors.
