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| Literary Criticisms | Poetry | Shakespeare Corner | Classical Mythology |
The following are reference tools you will find useful in any literary research. Choose the ones that make the most sense for your particular research problem and examine their tables of contents and indexes.
 | Why is literary criticism worth studying? Read this article by Steven Hale, Georgia Perimeter College. |
| Why analyze literature? Read this article by Professor John Lye, Brock University, for tips and rationale. |
| Springfield Township High School's handout on What is Literary Criticism? |
Books
Look for volumes of the Understanding Series, which deals with specific major titles, around the reference area in the numbers 810, 812, 813
Characters in Literature
| R 809.3 Gil Characters in Young Adult Literature |
| R 809.927 Har Characters in 20th Century Literature |
| R 809.927 How Characters in 19th Century Literature |
| R 920.02 Nic People in Books |
Resources for Shakespeare
| R 822.3 McL Shakespeare’s Characters |
| R 822.3 Sha Shakespeare for Students |
| R 822.3 Sha Shakespeare’s Characters for Students |
| R 822.33 Shakespeare Criticism |
See our Shakespeare Links
Databases
Databases rock for Literary Criticism and Literary Biography!
| Student Resource Center Gold |
| netLibrary (ACCESS PA) offers access to hundreds of e-books containing critical essays! |
| NoveList in the ACCESS PA POWER LIBRARY |
Using these databases at home? Get the password list from Ms. Korn
Websites
Literary Criticism on the free Web (Remember to evaluate these resources!)
| *Literary Criticism Collection (Internet Public Library) http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/ |
| Literary History http://www.literaryhistory.com An index to free articles on English and American literature, mixed bag of scholarly and popular |
| Literature and Literary Criticism http://www.stcc.cc.tx.us/main/litsearch.html |
| Literary Index http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/flackcj/LitIndex.html |
| Literary Resources on the Net http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ |
| LitLinks http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/ |
| PAL: Perspectives in American Literature--A Research and Reference Guide http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/table.html |
| American Collection http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/americanwritinggateway.htm |
| Literary Movements http://www.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl311/litfram.html |
| SchoolWork.org Literary Criticism and Biography http://www.schoolwork.org/books.html |
Book Review Web Sites
| New York Times Books http://www.nytimes.com/books/ (Sign up for a free subscription or use the library user name: sthslib password: 12345) |
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New York Times Historical http://hn.bigchalk.com/hnweb/hn/do/search |
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Amazon.com Book Search (External Reviews) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/catalog-searching.html |
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Book Index with Reviews (in ACCESS PA) |
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| Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com |
| Booklist http://www.ala.org/booklist/ |
| Bookspot http://bookspot.com |
| Classic Review Index http://www.TheAtlantic.com/atlantic/atlweb/classrev/crindex.htm |
| English Server Fiction: Criticism http://eserver.org/fiction/crit.html |
| Great Books Index http://books.mirror.org/gb.home.html |
| Internet Resources in English Language and Literature http://www-lib.haifa.ac.il/www/subj/english/englit.html |
| New York Review of Books http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/index.html |
| Washington Post: Chapter One http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/books/features/chapone.htm |
For online text and author biography see:
Rivendell's American Literature http://www.watson.org/rivendell/literatureamerican.html,
Giacobazzi's American Literature Resources http://www.kirtland.cc.mi.us/honors/amlit/newamlit2.htm,
Brief Timeline of American Literature http://www.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl311/1910.htm
Movie Reviews
| Internet Movie Database http://us.imdb.com/search (Click on external reviews) |
| Movie Review Query Engine http://www.mrqe.com/ |
| New York Times Movie Reviews http://www.nytimes.com/pages/movies/ |
| Online Film Critics' Society http://www.ofcs.org/ |
| Critics.com http://www.critics.com/ |
| MetaCritic http://www.metacritic.com/ |
| Poetry tools | Free web poetry | Lyrics |
You can find many poetry anthologies on our shelves. Try 808.1, 811 (American poetry), and 821 (English poetry). For other works, visit our Catalog.
We have two major sets of criticism in Reference: Poetry Criticism (R 809.1 Poe) and Poetry for Students (R 808.1).
Databases:
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Poetry
Finder/ LitFinder (in ACCESS PA) for full text poems, explanations,
and biographical information about poets. (To use this database at home, visit your local public library's web page and enter the barcode number on your library card or get a password from the public library.) |
Helpful tools for thinking about poetry
To help you analyze: Critical Reading: Poetry http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.html
Glossaries:
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Glossary of Literary Terms: http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/glossary/index.htm |
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Handbook of Rhetorical Devices: http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm |
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Glossary of Poetic Terms http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display_rpo/poetterm.cfm |
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Glossary of Poetic Terms http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary2.html |
| Shadow Poetry: Types of Poetry http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/types.html |
To help you rhyme: Semantic Rhyming Dictionary http://www.rhymezone.com
 | Google Directory Lyrics http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Lyrics/Rock_and_Pop/ |
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| Lyrics.com http://www.lyrics.com |
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| Yahoo! Lyrics http://search.yahoo.com/search/dir?p=lyrics&fr=FP-tab-dir-t&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8 |
| Elizabethan Period | Renaissance and Middle Ages |
Databases:
| Biography Reference Bank (in ACCESS PA) |
| Netlibrary (ACCESS PA POWER Library) |
| History Reference Center (EBSCOhost) |
| Grove Music Online (ACCESS PA POWER Library) |
General
| European History (Multnomah Library--great starting point!) http://www.multcolib.org/homework/eurohist.html |
| Spartacus Educational http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ |
| Food Timeline http://www.foodtimeline.org/ |
Renaissance and Middle Ages (general)
| General | Food | Music & Dance | Fashion | Important People | Kings & Queens | Black Death | Literature & Documents |
| Medieval and Renaissance Food Home Page http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.html |
| Food Timeline http://www.foodtimeline.org/ |
| Historical Dance http://www.historicaldance.com/ |
| Fashion, Food, Fun http://www.teacheroz.com/fashion.htm |
| Food Timeline http://www.foodtimeline.org/ |
| Grove Music Online |
| Medieval and Renaissance Instruments http://www.s-hamilton.k12.ia.us/antiqua/instrumt.html |
| Music in Tudor England http://tudorhistory.org/topics/music/ |
| Renaissance Dance http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/diessay2.html |
| Renaissance Dance http://www.rendance.org |
| Renaissance Dance Resources http://users.erols.com/eacain/dance/rendance.html |
| Music and Dance of the Period http://www.bcpl.net/~cbladey/guy/html/music.html#main |
| Morris Dancing http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/jcb/morris-teams.html |
| Dance Lessons http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/sca_dance_steps.html |
| Gale's Arts and Humanities Through the Eras |
| Costumer's Manifesto http://www.costumes.org/ |
| Costume Gallery http://www.costumegallery.com/ |
| Elizabethan Costuming Page http://costume.dm.net/ |
| Elizabethan Costume http://www.directcon.net/wander/lizcos.htm |
| Fashion, Food, Fun http://www.teacheroz.com/fashion.htm |
| Fashion Era http://www.fashion-era.com |
| Museum of Costume http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk |
| RenFaire Costuming http://www.renfaire.com/Costume/index.html |
| Fashion for Women through the Ages http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/fashion/index.htm |
| Gale's Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, |
| Visit Biography Reference Bank and Biography Resource Center |
| Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Texts/Marlowe.html |
| Sir Thomas More http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore.htm |
| Sir Thomas More Web Site http://www.apostles.com/thomasmore.html |
| Story of Sir Thomas More http://www.cin.org/farmor.html |
| Tudor History http://www.tudorhistory.org/ |
| Visit Biography Reference Bank and Biography Resource Center |
| British History http://britannia.com/history/ |
| Elizabeth I http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/eliza.htm |
| Elizabeth I: Writings and Speeches http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1.html |
| Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend http://www3.newberry.org/elizabeth/ |
| Execution of Lady Jane Grey (image) http://sunsite.auc.dk/cgfa/d/delaroc1.jpg |
| Lady Jane http://www.britannia.com/history/ladyjane/janefram.html |
| Royalty in History http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/kings.htm |
| Notable Women Ancestors - Royalty http://rootsweb.com/~nwa/royalty.html |
| Tudor History http://www.tudorhistory.org/ |
| Tudor England http://englishhistory.net/tudor/contents.html |
| Tudors http://www.royal.gov.uk./history/tudor.htm |
| Tudor History http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Tudors.htm |
| Tudor Monarchs http://www.englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs.html |
| Middle Ages: The Black Death http://history.boisestate.edu/westciv/plague/ |
| PBS: Black Death Resources http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/resources.html |
| BBC History: Black Death http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare/black_01.shtml |
| Black Death, 1348 Eyewitness Account http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm |
| Papal Schism, 100 Years War and the Black Plague http://www.li.suu.edu/library/courses/hum101/papal.htm |
| Plague http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/plague/ |
| Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Europe http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/osheim/intro.html |
| Black Death http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/bdeath.html |
| Decameron Web http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/dweb.shtml |
| Early Greek Philosophy - http://plato.evansville.edu/public/burnet/ |
| E-Ren Documents http://www.idbsu.edu/courses/hy309/docs/documents.html |
| Erasmus Text Project http://smith2.sewanee.edu/Erasmus/ |
| Erasmus: In Praise of Folly http://www.stupidity.com/erasmus/eracont.htm |
| European Renaissance/Reformation http://www.execpc.com/~dboals/rena.html |
| Investigating the Renaissance http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/Renaissance/index.html |
| Luminarium http://www.luminarium.org/lumina.htm |
| Medici Archive http://www.medici.org/ |
| Medieval and Renaissance History (Mining Company) http://historymedren.miningco.com/ |
| Renaissance Dante in Print http://www.nd.edu/~italnet/Dante/ |
| Sixteenth Century English Literature http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/ |
Don't forget our books! Visit the Dewey numbers: 292 & 398.2 Classical mythology
Databases
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Encyclopedias
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Websites and Portals