English
Subject Guide
Ann Grafstein, MLIS, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
English Subject Specialist
LEXICAT: Hofstra’s Online Library Catalog
Use the
catalog to see what books we own at Hofstra. Use it to find the books we own by
a particular author, or see if we have the title you are looking for. You can
also find literary criticism of specific authors or works, as well as
biographical information about authors. Use LEXICAT also to find video
recordings of literary works.
The library
subscribes to ebrary, a collection of electronic books; currently there are
over 41,800 titles in this collection. You can find many titles on the English
language and literature. For full functionality, download the free ebrary
reader by following the instructions on the ebrary site. There is a link to
ebrary on the library’s home page, and all of the titles in ebrary are in LEXICAT,
along with links that will take you directly to them.
MLA International Bibliography
Available through
the Research Databases on the library’s homepage, you can use
this database, produced by the Modern Language Association, to find books of
literary criticism. Check LEXICAT
to see if Hofstra owns the book. If we do not own it, you can
request it from Interlibrary Loan. If you do not
have an account, follow the instructions for First Time Users.
WorldCat is
the largest catalog in the world, with over 57,000,000 records. WorldCat
entries will tell you if the book you’re looking for is available at Hofstra.
If it is not, you can request it from Interlibrary Loan. If you do not
have an account, follow the instructions for First Time Users.
Free Online Books
There are
some sites that make the full text of certain electronic books available for
free. Here is a list of some of those sites:
Electronic
Text Center (University of Virginia Library)
The
Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
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Find
articles using the Research Databases on the library’s homepage. Below is a list
of some of the databases that will help you find literary criticism,
biographical information about authors, book reviews and guides to help you
understand literary works.
Use this
multidisciplinary database for both literary criticism and book reviews. It has
both scholarly and popular articles and much of it is full text.
A comprehensive
guide to book reviews. It is not full text, so you will need to use Journal
Finder to help you try to locate the full text. If you
cannot access the full text, you may request it from Interlibrary Loan. If you do not
have an account, follow the instructions for First Time Users.
Dictionary of Literary Biogaphy
Contains over 16,000
biographical and critical essays on the lives, works and careers of important
literary figures from all eras and genres. The entries have been scanned in
from the classic print source, so each one looks exactly like the printed
entry.
Contains over 100,000
titles from the first book published in English in the fifteenth century
through 1700.
Electronic Journal Service (EJS)
An index to thousands
of journal articles on a wide variety of topics, including English language and
literature. You have access to the full text for over 500 journals to which
Hofstra subscribes.
Contains the full text
of scholarly articles on a variety of topics, including literary criticism and
book reviews. JSTOR goes back to the first issue of every journal included in
its collection, but it does not include the latest two to five years of issues.
A full text digitized
version of almost the entire the Gale publishing company’s reference sets on
literature and authors. Students are the primary audience for this set.
Contains a large
portion of the printed Gale literature reference sets. Use this for finding
biographical information, the full text of journal articles containing literary
criticism and reviews of literary works. Also available are work overviews,
giving descriptions of the work, historical context, plot summaries and
descriptions of the characters.
Contains the full text
of in-depth book reviews on a wide variety of topics, including fiction and
literary criticism.
New York Times (Current) and New York Times Historical
Use the NYT Current for
the full text of book reviews and obituaries from 1980 to the present. Use NYT Historical
for issues for book reviews and obituaries from the first issue in 1851 to
2005.
MLA International Bibliography
A
bibliographic database that includes articles on literary criticism. It is not
full text, so you will need to use Journal Finder to help you try to
locate the full text. If you cannot access the full text, you may request it
from Interlibrary Loan. If you do not
have an account, follow the instructions for First Time Users.
Contains the full text
of scholarly journals. It is a good source for literary criticism and book
reviews.
Provides full text access to articles in journals published by SAGE, a
reputable publishing company.
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Print Sources
Listed here are general reference
sources on literature, literary terms and the theory of literary criticism. Not
included are works about specific authors or specific types of authors (e.g.,
Shakespeare, women writers, black writers or Hispanic writers). All of these
titles are either in the reference room or at the reference desk.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers (7th edition), Joseph
Gibaldi: Call # [REF] LB2369 .G53 2009 (Located the Reference Desk)
The latest edition of the
MLA citation guide. For a quick guide to creating a works cited list, see the MLA Citation Guide available
on the library’s
homepage.
A Glossary of Literary Terms
(9th edition), eds. M.H. Abrams & G. G. Halpham: Call # [REF]
PN41 .A184 2009
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches,
Scholars, Terms, ed., Irena Makaryk.
Call #: [REF] PN81 .E43 1993
A
Handbook to Literature, (8th
edition), eds. William Harmon & C. Hugh Holman
At the
end of the alphabetical list of literary terms is an outline of British and
American literary history becinning at approximately 55 BCE.
Literary
Movements for Students (2 vols.): Call # [REF] PN597 .L58 2002
Oxford
English Dictionary, 2nd (20 vols.): Call #
[REF] PE1625 O87 1989
The
accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last
millennium. It illustrates meaning changes in words using quotations ranging
from classical literature to periodicals, film scripts and cook books. See also
the online version of the Oxford English
Dictionary.
Twentieth-Century
Literary Movements Dictionary, eds. Helene Henderson
& Jay Pederson: Call # [REF] PN 597 .T94 2000.
A
Dictionary of Biblical Allusions in English Literature,
Walter B. Fulghum, Jr.: Call # [REF]
PR145 F8
An alphabetical
arrangement of some of the Biblical allusions used in literary works.
Electronic Sources
These are sources that are available online through the Research
Databases library’s
homepage.
With over 95,000
biographies and obituaries, this is a good source of biographical information
on authors. Make sure you click on the Biography
Reference Bank box in the Database Selection area at the top.
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory &
Criticism
Updated from the 1994
printed edition, this guide is a source of information about literary theory
and discourse.
Covers world literature
and authors from throughout history. Contains over 150,000 full text poems and
over 800,000 citations to poetry. Also included are the full text of some short
stories as well as biographical information.
See description of the printed version
of the Oxford English Dictionary
Offers full text in-depth coverage of over 600 world authors.
The
reference source listed below is not available through the Research Databases.
It is a freely available compilation of a variety of useful reference works. It
also includes the full text of some literary works.
Bartleby.com:
Great Books Online
Includes such useful
reference sets as the American Heritage
Dictionary, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, King James Bible, Oxford
Shakespeare (1914 Oxford edition of the Complete
Works of William Shakespeare), Roget’s
Thesauri and Strunk’s Elements of
Style as well as the full text of poetry, and as well as some works of
fiction and non-fiction.
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Online
Guides for Style, Writing and Research
OWL (Online Writing Lab) – Purdue University
This site contains a
wealth of free, useful information on the writing process for a variety of
different purposes. It also provides help on doing literary analysis and
criticism. Here too you can locate online citation guides for both MLA and APA
style.
Online Resources for Writers –
Amherst College Writing Center
This is a gateway to a
wide variety of writing
resources: it provides categorized links to resources on every stage of the
writing process, including topic selection, formulating a thesis statement, the
proper use of outside sources, and proofreading and editing. It also includes
links to help you with grammar, style and punctuation.
Online Literary Resources
Literary Criticism- General
Online Literary Criticism Guide – Internet Public Library
A
fairly comprehensive gateway to resources on literary criticism available on
the web. The site categorizes the links according to type of criticism.
Unrestricted Online Literary Criticism & Language
Journals – New York Public Library
This
site provides access to literary criticism and language resources in scholarly
journals that permit free access to the full text of their articles.
Based on the
well-known print publication of the same title, which publishes original
creative works and in-depth interviews with authors. Many of the older
interviews are available full text in .pdf format and there are also audio
files of interviews available, as well as recordings of author interviews or
readings. More recent material is available for purchase.
Specific
Authors and Literatures
Here is a
fairly random selection of sites on selected authors and literatures. In some
cases you will find biographical and critical information, and in others you
will find links to primary sources.
A non-profit
organization whose goal is to promote knowledge of the life and work of Herman
Melville. In addition to conducting programs, the Society publishes the journal
Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies,
edited by Hofstra English Professor John Bryant.
The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society
The
executive director of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society is Hofstra English
professor Ruth Prigozy. The mandate of the Society promote F. Scott Fitzgerald
studies by disseminating information through the newsletters, the conferences
it organizes, the creation of bibliographies, and the publication of The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review.
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
A very
thorough web site, with sections on the life and times of Shakespeare, his
works, criticism, information on
Shakespearean and Elizabethan theatre productions, and links to information
sources on Shakespeare, Elizabethan and Renaissance studies. There are also links to other sources where
you may find information on Shakespeare’s biblical, classical and mythological
allusions.
A valuable
site that includes information on Shakespeare himself, Elizabethan England, an
overview of the four periods of his works, and links to criticism, a discussion
of authorship controversies, as well as
an overview of Shakespeare’s use of language—including an online glossary—and
links to other sites giving relevant information on Shakespearean English.
Provides
links to information about different authors, as well as literary genres and
time periods. It links to some primary resources as well.
Provides
access to Whitman’s vast body of work. It includes biographical and critical
information, as well as his manuscripts, letters and published works. There is
also an image archive and a recording of “America” in what is believed to be
Whitman’s voice.
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