Starting Points: Guide to Literary Criticism

  Reference   l   Additional Material   l   Web Sites
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Reference – 1^st Floor  

Poetry Criticism - R 808.1 Poe

Poetry criticism by author.       

Short Story Criticism - R 808.3 Sho

Short story criticism by author.    

Masterplots - R 808.8 Mas

American Fiction; Drama; Poetry; Short Stories; & Revised Series.          
                                                                                                                                                                              
Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) - R 809 C

Criticisms of authors living or who have died since 1960.    
                                                           
Twentieth-Century Literature Criticism (TCLC): - R 809 T

Annual publication of criticism on authors who died between 1900-1999.                         
 
Book Review Index - R 809.03 B

Index to reviews appearing in periodicals indexed from 1971 – present.     

                                                           
Literature Criticism from 1400 - 1800 (LC) - R 809.03 Lit

Criticism excerpts of authors who died between 1400 and 1799.                           
 
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (NCLC) - R 809.034 Nin

Criticism on authors who died between 1800-1899.                         

Drama Criticism - R 809.2 Dra

Drama criticism by playwright.            

African American Writers - R 810.9 Afr

Criticism and biographic information on major Black American writers.                              

American Writers - R 810.9 Ame

Biographical information and criticism of major American writers and poets.                             

British Writers - R 820.9  Bri

Biographical information and criticism of major British writers and poets. 

Finding Additional Material

Dewey Decimal browsing numbers: 808 - 860
In addition to reference books, you may want to search for other books and materials (videos, audiobooks, etc.) on your topic. The best way to find good sources of information is to do a subject search in our Library catalog. You can access the Library catalog from the Library or from your home computer by going to our Web page (www.wppl.org), then to Search Our Catalog.  A good subject heading for this topic is American literature – history and criticism or  English criticism – history and criticism; Keats, John – criticism and interpretation, etc.

eBooks
Visit EBSCOhost to search the collection of thousands of eBooks the Library has to offer. Library card required. Contact a reference librarian for additional details.

Articles
The following sources can be used to find magazine articles dealing with your topic:

·             The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature - Adult Reference  R 050 R
       Search for articles on a subject within any given year.

       Literature Resource Center, EBSCOhost and Infotrac Onefile,  - Access from the Library or at home using your library card
       number at www.wppl.org.  Search for full-text articles in these online databases using your choice of keywords. You can limit
       the search to a certain year or even a certain magazine.

Web Sites

Classic Notes: Detailed summaries, essays, character discussions, theme discussions and more for over 300 poems, novels and stories.          
 

Critical Reading - A Guide: A guide to help students think critically about the literature they are reading. It also includes analyses of various literature types, and instructions on how to write an analytical essay.                                                                     
      
IPL's Online Literary Criticism: Internet Public Library’s critical and biographical websites about authors and their works, search by author, title, or nationality and literary period.      
 

Library Spot's Literary Criticism: Library Spot's links to helpful author and litcrit sites.                     
                                       
Modern American Poetry – MAPs: For the study of modern American poetry, concentrating on essays addressing the works of 161 poets.                                                          
Spark Notes:  for texts, notes, quizzes and study guides. Includes side-by-side Original Text and Modern Texts for Shakespeare.  A free registration required for some access.

***See also dozens of other literature sites at the Library’s Good Web Sites webpage. From our homepage (www.wppl.org) click on Reference Resources, go to Good Websites then Literature.***  

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