FINDING LITERARY CRITICISM
DEFINITION: In literary studies, secondary texts are works that interpret primary texts. "Criticism" in this context does not mean "to find fault with" but "to investigate, analyze, and evaluate" the text.
To find books of literary criticism, you can search in ACORN for the author of the primary text as "subject":
Your search results are a list of subject headings that you can click on to see information on the specific library holdings. For critical studies, you might look at the subheadings of "bibliography" or "criticism and interpretation" or "criticism and interpretation bibliography." You might also look for the title of the primary text after the author's name and before the subheading. Here are some examples from the results of an author-as-subject search for Nathaniel Hawthorne:
HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL 1804-1864
HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL 1804-1864 BIBLIOGRAPHY
HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL 1804-1864 BLITHEDALE ROMANCE
HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL 1804-1864 CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION
HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL 1804-1864 CRTICISM AND INTERPRETATION BIBLIOGRAPHY
HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL 1804-1864 HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES
HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL 1804-1864 SCARLET LETTER
Below are listed electronic and print resources that can help you find citations, abstracts, or evaluations of literary criticism. These are the places to begin your research. NOTE: You can access the electronic databases from the Heard Library "All Databases" page; these databases are restricted to Vanderbilt users only.
ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literatureavailable online (1920-2000) through Lion print: Z2011.M69 (vol. 4 [1923] to 74 [1999]--located in Reference/ 4th floor) |
Published by the Modern Humanities Research Association (a British organization); an extensive annual bibliography of criticism of English-language writers, which covers all periods, genres, and geographical areas where English is written and published. Includes citations and abstracts. ABELL complements MLAIB but does not substitute for it. |
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MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures available online (1963-present) print: Z7006.M64 (1921 to date--located in Bookcase 2 in the Reference Room) |
This is the place to begin since MLAIB is the standard in the discipline: an annual listing and subject index for modern languages and literatures, including articles, books, dissertations, and other critical sources on all subjects, genres, periods of American, English, and other world literatures (but does not include book reviews). Includes citations and abstracts. |
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available online |
Index to over 3,000 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to 1995. |
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Year's Work in English Studies print only: PE58.E6 (1992 to date located in Reference/4th floor; 1919-1991 located in stacks on 7th floor) |
Selective and evaluative surveys of scholarship in English and American literature, and some other literatures in English; scope varies (American literature first included in vol. 35 [1954], for example). Bibliographic essays are divided by periods, national literatures, major authors; other chapters focus on language, reference works, and literary history. List of material reviewed is at the end of each chapter. |
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available online (1998-99) through Project Muse print: PS3.A47 (1985-99 located in Reference/4th floor; 1963-84 located in stacks on 7th floor) |
Selective and evaluative survey of studies, editions, biographies, and reference works on American literature. Approximately 22 chapters, written by established scholars and specialists; these chapters focus on individual authors, periods, and literary movements. |
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Articles on American Literature print only: PS88.L493 (Reference/4th floor) |
Vol. 1: 1900-1950/ vol. 2: 1950-1967/ vol. 3: 1968-1975. Index to citations of articles on works by American authors. Authors are listed alphabetically; subjects appear in the "American Literature" section. |
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Guide to American Poetry Explication print only: PS201.G85 1989 (Reference/4th floor) |
Vol. 1: Colonial and Nineteenth Century/ vol. 2: Modern and Contemporary. Index to articles and books that analyze poetry by American authors. Poets are listed alphabetically by last name; the specific works are listed alphabetically under the author's name. For full citations for book titles, see the "Main Sources Consulted" section at the back of the book. |
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Essay and General Literature Index print only: A!3.F752 (vols. 1 [1900-33] to 34 [2000], subscription cancelled--located in Bookcase 4 in Reference Room) |
Index to scholarly essays that have appeared in collections and festschriften; indexed by author, subject, and occasionally by title. Emphasis is on the humanities and social sciences. |
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Humanities Index print only: A!3.H85 (vols. 1 [1977/78] to 23 [1997]--located in the Reference Room) |
Index to scholarly articles about all fields in the humanities, including literature. About 400 English-language periodicals are indexed here. Materials include articles; interviews; reviews of plays, operas, dance, movies, television and radio programs, and other visual media; obituaries; bibliographies; works of fiction, drama, and poetry. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author and subject. Book reviews are listed separately at the end of the main index. |
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Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance available online |
Index to the complete runs of over 500 scholarly journals that contain articles on the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Index to books is still under construction. |
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Contemporary Literature Criticism Select available online |
The focus of this database is on contemporary authors. It includes a biographical and critical introduction with a list of the author's principal works and an overview of the critical reception. Also included are sources for further study (selected interviews and articles in the form of citations and/or full text). |
Once you have found your citations from the above electronic databases or print indexes, you need to determine if the books or journals are available to you here at Vanderbilt. For books, you can search in ACORN by typing in the author's name or the title; if the book is not in ACORN, consider the option of interlibrary loan via Athena, Kudzu, or WorldCat.
To find articles, you need to search for the title of the journal (labeled "source" in some databases) in ACORN. Type the title of the journal in the search box; choose "begins with" as your search type; and then click on the "periodical title" button. If the journal is available electronically, the ACORN record will have the label "Internet" along with a hyperlink that you can click on for immediate access to the journal (you then need to find the right volume, issue, and page numbers). You can also look at the E-journals page (linked from the Heard Library web pages), searching alphabetically by title or browsing by subject area. If the journal is available only in print, mark down the call number so that you can locate the bound volumes on the 6th floor; current issues are in alphabetical order in the Periodicals Reading Room, also on the 6th floor.
You might also search in the electronic databases listed below; these databases contain abstracts and/or full text for many of the periodicals found in the citation indexes mentioned above. NOTE: these databases are restricted to Vanderbilt users only.
| ProQuest | Contains full text or abstract/citation for articles on various literary topics. You can also use this database to find reviews of recently published books. |
| Infotrac Expanded Academic ASAP | Contains full text or abstract/citation for articles on various literary topics. |
| JSTOR | Electronic archive of core scholarly journals in many disciplines, from the first issue up to within 5 years of the present issue (available in PDF format). You may search the entire database, search in selected journals, or browse journal tables-of-contents. |
| Project Muse | Journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Most are available in full text. Searching for subjects within journal articles is available. |
| ECO (Electronic Collections Online) from OCLC | Abstracts and/or full text from over 2,000 scholarly journals in various disciplines; the titles of these journals are also listed on the E-journals web page that you can link to from the Heard Library page. |
OVERVIEWS OF CRITICISM: THE GALE CRITICISM SERIES
These historical surveys of the critical responses to the works of novelists, poets, and other creative writers include excerpts from the earliest published criticism up to current evaluations. Brief biographies and bibliographies of the writers are included; often pictures are included as well. The compilations for authors and works are often updated, so check in the cumulative author index or the cumulative title index of the most recently published volume in the series that you are using; these indexes also refer you to relevant volumes in the other Gale series. These cumulative indexes also include the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
NOTE: Citing these excerpts is not advised; reading only a portion of a longer work gives you only a glimpse of a critic's argument, so most instructors do not accept quotations taken from these volumes. If a book or article interests you, check in ACORN for the title of the book or journal in order to find the complete critical work. If the book or journal is not in ACORN, then consider the option of interlibrary loan.
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Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism [CMLC] PA3001.C348--REF 4th floor |
Covers world authors from classical antiquity through the fourteenth century; literatures in languages other than English are included in this series but there is ample coverage of writers in Old and Middle English (Bede, Caedmon, Cynewulf) and anonymous works (Beowulf, Sir Orfeo). |
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Contemporary Authors [CA] Z1224.C6--REF 4th floor |
A biographical and bibliographic guide to current writers in fiction, poetry, drama, journalism, general non-fiction, motion pictures, and television. |
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Contemporary Literary Criticism [CLC] PN771.C59--REF 4th floor |
Covers creative writers who are currently living or who died after 1959. |
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Drama Criticism [DC] PN1601.D59--REF 4th floor |
Covers plays written by dramatists from all literary periods and nationalities. |
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Literarture Criticism from 1400-1800 [LC] PN86.L53--REF 4th floor |
Covers creative writers of the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, including Chaucer but excluding Shakespeare. |
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Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism [NCLC] PN761.N5--REF 4th floor |
Covers creative writers who lived between 1800 and 1900. |
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Poetry Criticism [PC] PN1010.P499--REF 4th floor |
Covers poetry written by significant and widely studied poets of all literary periods and nationalities. |
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Shakespeare Criticism [SC] PR2965.S44--REF 4th floor |
Covers Shakespeare's plays and poetry. Vols. 11-26 focus on performance history and criticism of the plays on stage and screen. |
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Short Story Criticism [SSC] PN3321.S5--REF 4th floor |
Covers short fiction written by authors of all literary periods and nationalities. |
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Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism [TCLC] PN771.G27--REF 4th floor |
Covers creative writers who lived and died between 1900 and 1960. |
[Compiled by Martha Kallstrom; for questions and comments, contact Dale Manning at manning@library.vanderbilt.edu]
Date: April 22, 2002