Recommended Databases
Most of the sources listed in the Article Databases tab at left include criticism, analysis, reviews, and overviews. Below are a few good places to start.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowOne of the first places to start in a search for literary criticism of all types. Covers the world's research literature in literature, language, linguistics, and folklore.
To streamline your search, you may want to limit to "Journal Article" from the Source Type box at the bottom of the page. - Literature Resource CenterCriticism, biographies, reference articles, full-text journals, reviews, primary works, plot analysis, explication, and more.
The database will search all of the above. You can change this default by going to Advanced Search and scrolling to the bottom of the page to "by content type" and limiting to literature criticism. - Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window
Provides criticism and commentary on authors and their literary works written by contemporary and modern scholars. Includes the following series: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Literature Criticism 1400-1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespeare Criticism, Short Story Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.
- Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new windowCitations are drawn from the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL), an indispensable reference work for English studies. The electronic database contains more than 960,000 records, from 1892 through to today with regular monthly updates of newly indexed material.
ABELL results are seamlessly linked to more than 325 full-text journals in the Literature Online (LION)
database.
Companions to Literature
- Penguin Classics IntroductionsThese nearly 400 volumes from the Penguin Classics series include key information about the biographical, historical and critical details surrounding the author and the text.
Click the Reference link in the banner at the top of the home page, then click Penguin Classics.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) This link opens in a new windowEach volume of this huge set is devoted to the authors of a particular era, place or genre, or to a theme. There is a cumulative index at the end of each volume. Entries include a portrait of the author, a list of his or her published works, a detailed literary biography, a bibliography of other sources and, often, the location of the author's papers.
- Cambridge Companions to LiteratureOver 215 volumes from this acclaimed series of critical texts. From the LION database, you can search via the "Criticism" search page or browse a list of volumes and constituent essays from the link in the "Complete Contents."