A small selection of reference texts for literature students. For more, explore the P books in the reference section on Level 3 (PR - PS for English / American literature) of TJ Library.
A Handbook to Literature
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The definitive, contemporary reference on literature and literary criticism in English, this handbook provides an alphabetical listing of more than 2,000 important terms and facts in literature, linguistics, rhetoric, criticism, printing, bookselling, and information technology. KEY TOPICS: Covers a wide range of terms, most centered in literature, but extending into other areas, such as film, radio, TV, printing, linguistics and literary theory, music, graphic arts, classical studies, and computing and information science terms. MARKET: For anyone interested in literature and literary criticism.
The Cambridge History of American Literature
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Volume I of The Cambridge History of American Literature was originally published in 1997, and covers the colonial and early national periods and discusses the work of a diverse assemblage of authors, from Renaissance explorers and Puritan theocrats to Revolutionary pamphleteers and poets and novelists of the new republic. Addressing those characteristics that render the texts distinctively American while placing the literature in an international perspective, the contributors offer a compelling new evaluation of both the literary importance of early American history and the historical value of early American literature.
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
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Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism has become the indispensable resource for scholars and students of literary theory and discourse. The long-awaited second edition includes 48 new entries and subentries and has been revised throughout, taking account of ten years of rapidly changing scholarship. While concentrating on the explosion of contemporary critical and theoretical works, the Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of ideas and individuals ranging from Plato and Aristotle to twentieth-century scholars. It includes more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also examines developments in other disciplines which have shaped literary theory and criticism. An international, encyclopedic guide to the field's most important figures, schools, and movements, the new edition reflects the state of literary theory and criticism.
The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
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This abridgement of The Oxford Companion to African American Literature will make the entries of the greatest general interest available to a wider audience, providing the same calibre of scholarship and information as the original volume. The Concise collects more than 400 biographies (authors, critics, literary characters and historical figures) of both well-known figures and the lives and careers of writers not found in other reference works. The abridgement also includes the 150 plot summaries of major works. The editors briefly update the biographic details for author entries to include mention of major new works, death dates, and awards since the Companion's 1997 publication. A revised introduction, contributors list, subject index, cross-references, and updated bibliographical notes are also included. The volume reprints in its entirety the five-part fifteen page essay, "Literary History", capturing the full sweep of African American writing in the U.S. from the colonial and early national eras to the present day.
A Glossary of Literary Terms
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First published over fifty years ago, A GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS remains an essential resource for all serious students of literature. Now fully updated to reflect the latest scholarship on recent and rapidly evolving critical theories, the new contains a complete glossary of essential literary terms presented as a series of engaging, beautifully crafted, essays that explore the terms, place them in context, and suggest related entries and additional reading. This indispensable, authoritative, and highly affordable reference covers terms useful in discussing literature and literary history, theory, and criticism. Perfect as a core text for introductory literary theory or as a supplement to any literature course, this classic work is an invaluable reference that you can use throughout your academic and professional careers.
Adonis to Zorro
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Allusions form a colourful extension to the English language, drawing on our collective knowledge of literature, mythology, and the Bible to give us a literary shorthand for describing people, places, and events. So a cunning crook is an Artful Dodger, a daydreamer is like Billy Liar, apowerful woman is a modern-day Amazon - we can suffer like Sisyphus, fail like Canute, or linger like the smile of the Cheshire Cat.This absorbing and accessible A-Z explains the meanings of allusions in modern English, from Adonis to Zorro, Tartarus to Tarzan, and Rubens to Rambo. Fascinating to browse through, the book is based on an extensive reading programme that has identified the most commonly-used allusions. For thethird edition all entries have been reviewed, revised, and thoroughly updated to ensure the consistency of coverage of allusions and references. New to this edition is the inclusion within each entry of a short summary definition for the allusion or reference, ideal for quick reference, and at leastone illustrative citation from a wide range of source materials in almost every entry: from Aldous Huxley to Philip Roth, Emily Bronte to The Guardian Unlimited.. A useful thematic index allows searching for allusions related to a specific topic, e.g. at Intelligence find Aristotle, Einstein, andSpock, and at Hair find Medusa, Samson, and Shirley Temple.Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion is both a useful and user-friendly reference work for students of English Literature and Language, as well as for non-native English speakers for aid with unusual references, and an absorbing volume for all lovers of literature and culture ingeneral.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from Dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.
Indexes critical materials on modern language, literature, linguistics, and folklore. Covers over 3,000 journals and series, books, working papers and proceedings, and bibliographies.
Literary Criticism Online is an extensive compilation of scholarly and popular commentary drawn from an extensive collection of broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals. UMSL has access to the following sections: Contemporary Literary Criticism - [Volume 1 (1973) - present], Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism [Volume 1 (1981) - 259 (2012)] , and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism - [Volume 1 (1978) - present].
American Fiction, 1774–1920 contains more than 17,800 titles. The collection is comprised of prose fiction written by Americans from the political beginnings of the United States through World War I and it explores the development of American literature through novels, short stories, romances, fictitious biographies, travel accounts, and sketches. These texts reveal much about the socioeconomic, political, and religious tenor of America through centuries of radical change.
MagillOnLiterature Plus™, produced by Salem Press, combines all the quality content of both MagillOnLiterature and MagillOnAuthors in a fully integrated and enhanced single database. This database is composed of approximately 35,000 critical analyses of individual works of literature, more than 15,000 biographical records,more than 5,00 images and a glossary of 1,100 literary terms.
JSTOR contains articles and books, usually at least 3-5 years old, from scholarly sources. They also have some primary resource collections. For more recent material, use Discover@UMSL or other individual databases.
Academic Search Complete is a scholarly, multidisciplinary full-text database, with several thousand full-text periodicals, most of which are peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for many more journals, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
