http://www.brcc.edu/library/litcrit/

 
 

Literary Criticism

 
 

Blue Ridge Community College
Houff Library

 

 
 Reference Books - the first place to begin your research
 
Contemporary Literary Criticism Ref. PN 81 .C6 
Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism Ref. PN 761 .N5 
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Ref. PN 771 .T8 
1,300 Critical Evaluations of Selected Novels and Plays Ref. PN 44 .M31 
Survey of Contemporary Literature Ref. PN 44 .M34 1977 
The Oxford Companion to American Literature Ref. PS 21 .H3 1995 
The Oxford Companion to Women's Writings in the United States Ref. PS 147 .O94 1995 
American Women Writers Ref. PS 147 .A4 
Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography Ref. PS 129 .C66 
Reference Guide to Short Fiction Ref. PN 3373 .R36 1994 
Voices of Multicultural America Ref. PS 663 .M55 V64 
Modern Black Writers Ref. PN 841 .M58 
Major Characters in American Fiction Ref. PS 374 .C43 M35 1994 
Masterplots Ref. PN 44 .M33 
Contemporary Authors Ref. Z 1224 .C58 
Oxford Companion to English Literature Ref. PR 19 .D73 1995 
The Critical Temper Ref. PR 83 .C764 includes criticism of British and American literature from its beginnings up to the 20th century 
Modern British Literature Ref. PR 473 .T27 
 
 Online Reference Sources
 
African American Literature, The Concise Oxford Companion to
African American Poetry Database
American Poetry Database 
American Literature, The Concise Oxford Companion to
American Literature, The Oxford Companion to
American Usage and Style, The Oxford Dictionary of
BRCC's Research Guide on Primary Sources
British Poetry
Classical Literature, The Concise Oxford Companion to
Contemporary Novelists, 7th Edition
Contemporary Poets,
7th Edition
Electronic Text Library -
from UVA
English Grammar, The Oxford Dictionary of
English Language, Concise Oxford Companion to the
English Literature, The Concise Oxford Companion to
English Literature, The Oxford Companion to
English Poetry Database
English Verse Drama Database
How to Find Literary Criticism on the Web
Literary Index
Literary Resources on the Net 
Literary Terms, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of

Modern English Collection -
from UVA
Online Books Page
Online Literary Criticism Collection
Project Gutenberg
Shakespeare, A Dictionary of
Shakespeare, The Oxford Companion to
Voice of the Shuttle: English Literature

Writers and their Works, A Dictionary of
 
 Books and Print Resources - no limit on how many books you can check out at one time.  Our checkout period is four weeks.  Library cards are free at the Circulation Desk.
 

Quick Book Search:        
 

Resources for locating books from other libraries.  

WorldCat 88+ million books worldwide
James Madison University
University of Virginia

Mary Baldwin College

Click here on info on how to obtain library privileges at the above libraries.

If you find a title you would like, use the Library's Interlibrary Loan service. Print, or write out the information and call the Library, come in (our hours) or E-Mail a Librarian

 
 Periodical Indexes (Magazines, Journals & Newspapers) - this is where you can print articles from actual magazines, journals and newspapers.  For free.
 

Be sure and follow all the steps on our Remote Access Directions page to be able to access these databases
from your home computer.

If you need peer-reviewed/refereed articles, be sure to click that box if the database you are using offers that option on their search screen.  Click here for a five minute video that explains all about peer reviewed articles.

Academic Search Complete- more than 5,500 full-text periodicals, indexing and abstracts for more than 9,500 journals, with content going back as far as 1887.
Factiva: (must use Internet Explorer) Provides FULL-TEXT articles from many magazines, journals, newspapers, and newswires.  
Humanities International Complete -
Indexes more than 2,000 literary and creative journals.
JSTOR - full-text articles in the Language & Literature collection.  Some back to the 1800's.
Literature Resource Center  provides access to biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline

MLA International Bibliography indexes critical scholarship on literature, language, linguistics and folklore. Coverage includes journal articles, series, monographs, dissertations, bibliographies, proceedings and other materials.
Project MUSE: Search an index of FULL-TEXT articles from over 40 scholarly journals 
ProQuest Historical New York Times Newspaper  Full-text articles from 1851-2001.  Many literary critiques.
Wiley InterScience  - over 3 million articles across 1400 journals

What to do if the article you want isn't full-text in the database where you found it:
1.  Look in the Houff Library Periodical Holdings listing. Maybe you can check out the magazine or journal that has your article in it.
2.  Not there?  Then copy and paste the JOURNAL name in the following links This will tell you if it's full-text in one of our 200+ databases:
VIVA Online Journal Locator

VCCS Online Journal Search
3
.  Look in the databases that BRCC subscribes to on their own (not through VIVA or VCCS).  They are JSTOR
, and ProQuest Historical New York Times Newspaper.
4.  Try DOAJ:  Directory of Open Access Journals at http://www.doaj.org/.  This has full-text to nearly 91,000 articles.
5
.  If your journal still isn't full-text in either of these two links, then copy the ARTICLE title and and paste it into a Google search to see if it's on the author's home page or in an online journal.
6.  Type the JOURNAL title into Google and see if the journal is free online.
7.  If that fails, then use the BRCC Library's free Interlibrary Loan service.  Print the article information and bring that into the library or copy and paste the article information into the E-Mail a Librarian link and we will call you when the article arrives.
 
Style Guides - for MLA and APA citations for your bibliography
 

Online Citation Builders (you fill in the blanks and it puts your citation into the correct format):
Slate Citation Machine
BibBuilder 
Citation Builder

Noodle Tool
even more here

MLA cheat sheets:
Citation Style for Research Papers
Citing Sources from Duke University
MLA Guide from Purdue's On-line Writing Lab
even more here

 
Internet Searching - you can surf the 'net well, but here's how to evaluate what you find.
 
Google Scholar
Web Site Evaluation Information - four questions you should ask yourself before using any website.
Need Assistance?
Question?  E-Mail a Librarian - online form to ask a quick question of the Librarian.
LRC Live - real time online help from real live librarians.
Online Suggestion Box - your tuition and fees help pay for the library so let us know what we can do for you.

5/26/09