Library Guides: ENGL 487W: Senior Seminar: Independent Research Project

General Information

Use these databases to find general information on literary criticism, as well as specific literary works and authors.

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
The Guide consists of 226 alphabetically arranged entries on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
The Guide consists of 226 alphabetically arranged entries on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
Dictionary of Literary Biography
This new and growing database covers authors from all genres and time periods. Entries provide a good starting point for students by providing a general essay and biographical information. In addition to the essay there are references to primary and further critical information. All entries are written by scholars and academic specialists.
This new and growing database covers authors from all genres and time periods. Entries provide a good starting point for students by providing a general essay and biographical information. In addition to the essay there are references to primary and further critical information. All entries are written by scholars and academic specialists.
Literature Online Core (LION Core) (legacy)
With over a third of a million full-text works of poetry, prose and drama in English, together with the definitive online criticism and reference library, Literature Online is the world's largest cross-searchable database of literature and criticism.
With over a third of a million full-text works of poetry, prose and drama in English, together with the definitive online criticism and reference library, Literature Online is the world's largest cross-searchable database of literature and criticism.

Criticism

Use these databases to find literary criticism on specific works.

MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
The MLA International Bibliography contains more than 1.7 million records for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.
The MLA International Bibliography contains more than 1.7 million records for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.
Project MUSE
Project MUSE is a unique collaboration between libraries and publishers providing 100% full-text, affordable and user-friendly online access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers.
Project MUSE is a unique collaboration between libraries and publishers providing 100% full-text, affordable and user-friendly online access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers. MUSE began in 1993 as a pioneering joint project of the Johns Hopkins University Press and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at JHU. Grants from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities allowed MUSE to go live with JHU Press journals in 1995. Journals from other publishers were first incorporated in 2000, with additional university press and scholarly society publishers joining in each subsequent year.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization that provides a trusted archive of important scholarly journals and a selection of scholarly books. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization that provides a trusted archive of important scholarly journals and a selection of scholarly books. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. While indexing for JSTOR articles is covered in LionSearch, the full text of the articles is not searched in LionSearch. Search JSTOR itself to ensure detailed coverage of full texts.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities.
Gale Literature Criticism
Literature Criticism Online offers biographical and critical essays on authors and their works including novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, literary theorists, and other writers.
Literature Criticism Online offers biographical and critical essays on authors and their works including novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, literary theorists, and other writers. The database features full-text content from a number of Gale print literature sets.
Oxford Bibliographies Online
Brief essays by experts on major topics in and assortment of arts and humanities disciplines. Each essay selects and describes the important scholarship on the topic. Items in the annotated bibliographies usually link to library holdings.
Brief essays by experts on major topics in and assortment of arts and humanities disciplines. Each essay selects and describes the important scholarship on the topic. Items in the annotated bibliographies usually link to library holdings.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Once you set your institutional preferences, links to full-text, if available at Penn State, should appear.
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Once you set your institutional preferences, links to full-text, if available at Penn State, should appear.

Find Books & eBooks

The CAT - Find Books and Other Materials at Penn State

You can search The CAT by entering book titles or authors' names.

To do a subject search, it is important to know the LC subject headings. You can also "Browse" by subject headings. As you search, be on the look out for relevant headings. Examples include:

Comparative literature
Comparative literature -- African and European
Comparative literature -- American and German
Literature, Modern

You can also search for books about literary theory or periods. Some examples:

Postcolonialism
Modernism Literature
Marxist Criticism
Romanticism

WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch)
For finding materials not available at Penn State University Libraries
OCLC WorldCat database is the OCLC online union catalog. It contains over 43 million records describing library holdings around the world.

Interlibrary Loan
Request items not owned by Penn State University Libraries.