Selected Resources for:
English

ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature)   

http://0-lion.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/initCritRefSearch.do?listType=abell

ABELL is part of the Literature Online database and covers all aspects and periods of English-language literature, linguistics, folklore, and cultural studies. ABELL indexes monographs, book reviews, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, collections of essays, and doctoral dissertations published worldwide. Includes material in languages other than English. Subject areas covered include:
Literature: poetry, prose, fiction, films, biography, travel writing, literary theory, studies of individual authors.
Language: syntax, phonology, lexicology, semantics, stylistics, dialectology.
Bibliography: manuscript studies, textual studies, history of publishing.
Cultural Studies: customs, belief, narrative, song, dance, material culture.
Includes links to the full text of over 100 journals.

America: History & Life   

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=ahl

1954- .

Primary index to research in American history. Useful for literary studies because it includes social and cultural history. Includes abstracts (summaries) of journal articles. Limit by language, time period, and document type (articles, collections of articles, books, and dissertations).

Help using this Resource

Historical Abstracts   

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=hia

1450- .

Primary index to materials for research in non-U.S./non-Canadian history, including social and cultural history. Includes abstracts (summaries) of journal articles. Covers world history from 1450 to the present.

Humanities Full Text   

http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?prod=HUMFT

1984- .

Indexes the major scholarly English-language journals in the humanities (including history and literature). For prior years, use Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective .

Literature Online (LION)   

http://0-lion.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/

1996-

Allows you to search, singly or simultaneously, both the MLA International Bibliography and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature--in addition to providing access to more than 350,000 full-text works of English and American poetry, drama, and fiction with complementary criticism, reference resources, and websites. Provides links to full-text articles from over 200 literature journals.

MLA International Bibliography   

http://0-collections.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/initCritRefSearch.do?listType=mla

1926- .

The MLA International Bibliography, produced by the Modern Language Association of America, provides access to worldwide scholarly research in over 4,400 journals and series pertaining to literature (including drama), language, linguistics, folklore, film, radio, television, and theater. Provides citations to journal articles, books, book chapters from multi-author works, dissertations, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, and bibliographies. Does not include book reviews. MLA International Bibliography represents all national literatures.

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Shakespeare Collection  

http://0-shakespeare.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/shax/dispAdvSearch.do?prodId=SHAX&userGroupName=wash43584

In addition to the full text of the Arden Shakespeare and other primary source materials, this database provides access to full-text scholarly journals on literary and interdisciplinary topics (e.g., Renaissance, Elizabethan studies, Early Modern English studies, film studies).

JSTOR   

http://0-www.jstor.org.library.lausys.georgetown.edu

Full text (in PDF format) of selected, important scholarly journals in a number of fields. Note: journals in JSTOR usually do not include the most recent three to five years. For more recent articles, use one of the other indexes listed in this section.

Project Muse   

http://0-muse.jhu.edu.library.lausys.georgetown.edu:80/journals/

Mid-1990s- (dates vary by title).

Provides access to almost 250 journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, and 40 other scholarly publishers. Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others. You can search across all journals in the database, selected subsets of journal titles or just a single title. Full text is available for titles marked with a green arrow.

TLS Archive  

http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,25332,00.html

1994- present

Literary culture and book reviews from The Times Literary Supplement, 1994- . Ask at the Reference Desk for username and password.

TLS e-paper  

http://tls.newspaperdirect.com

Latest month's issues of Times Literary Supplement, online

Literary culture and book reviews from the latest month's issues of The Times Literary Supplement. Ask at the Reference Desk for username and password.

Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory  

Provides definitions of technical terms, genres, literary movements, motifs or themes, styles, and concepts, many with excerpts of works to illustrate the term. Entries range from a paragraph to 40 pages long.

Location: Ref. PN 41 .C83 1998

Dictionary of Narratology  

Defines and explains specific terminology and concepts in narratology. Entries are keyed to articles or books in which the terms originated or are used. Some definitions are substantial in length.

Location: Ref. P 302.7 .P75 2003

Handbook to Literature  

A dictionary of places, groups, movements, -isms, critical terms, genres, periods, concepts, and other literary terms associated with English and American literature. Note: Earlier editions are located in the fifth-floor stacks at PN 41 .H6.

Location: Ref. PN 41 .H355 1996

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism  

http://0-litguide.press.jhu.edu.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/

Alphabetically arranged entries on literary critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, the contributions of specific countries and historical periods, and nonliterary fields of inquiry shaped by literary theory and criticism. Entries consist of a critical essay addressing the subject's historical and philosophical importance and a selective primary and secondary bibliography.

Location: Ref. PN 81 .J554 2005

Middle English Compendium  

http://0-www.hti.umich.edu.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/mec/

1100-1500

The Middle English Compendium provides hyperlinks between three major Middle English electronic resources: an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary (MED), a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse (based on the MED bibliographies), and other related electronic resources including a collection of more than 50 Middle English texts.
Middle English Dictionary--The print version (LAU Stacks and Cataloging PE679 .M54), now nearing completion, has been described as "the greatest achievement in medieval scholarship in America," offering a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500.
HyperBibliography of Middle English--Includes all the Middle English materials cited in the MED. Titles were adopted from A Manual of the Writings in Middle English (LAU Ref PR255 .S4).
Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse--A growing collection of Middle English electronic texts eventually to include all editions of Middle English texts used in the MED and the more recent scholarly editions that may have superseded them.
Assembled from works contributed by University of Michigan faculty and the Oxford Text Archive as well as from works created specifically for the Corpus by the Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) at the University of Michigan.

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia  

Amplifies a reader's understanding of literature through brief entries on authors, works of literature, schools of thought, literary movements, genres, literary devices, allusions to myths and legends, significant historical events, and important themes and characters in fiction. Note: Earlier editions are located in the fifth-floor stacks at PN 41 .B4.

Location: Ref. PN 41 .B4 1996

Continuum Encyclopedia of Modern Criticism and Theory  

More than 100 signed essays on the history and development of “inter- and trans-disciplinary” literary and cultural criticism, with entries about theorists, philosophers, literary critics, lesbian and gay studies, African American studies, and schools of thought.

Location: Ref. PN 94 .C695 2002

Encyclopedia of American Literature  

Biographical and critical commentary on American authors and works, describing authors' primary themes and unique contributions to literary history. Entries include a selective bibliography. Seventy topical essays address themes and genres such as “Feminism and Women’s Writing,” “Indian Captivity Narrative,” and “Film and Literature.”

Location: Ref. PS 21 .E53 1999

Encyclopedia of Satirical Literature  

Location: Ref. PN 6149.S2 S56 1996

Encyclopedia of the Novel  

Location: Ref. PN 41 .E487 1998

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century  

Location: LAU Ref PN771.E5 1999

Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory  

This comprehensive source provides a history of the field with explanations of core concepts, categories, distinctions, and key terms. Length of entries (in alphabetical order) varies from 3000-word mini-essays to short definitions. Includes a list of suggestions for further reading.

Location: Ref. PN 212 .R68 2005

Oxford Reference Online Premium  

http://0-www.oxfordreference.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu

Contains the following reference sources: The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, The Oxford Companion to American Literature, The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, The Oxford Companion to English Literature, The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English, and A Dictionary of Writers and Their Works.

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English  

Arranged alphabetically. Entries cover authors, genres, movements, groups, and major individual works. Includes the English-language literatures of all English-speaking cultures.

Location: Ref. PR 85 .C29 2006

Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature  

http://0-www.oxfordreference.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/views/BOOK_SEARCH.html?book=t52

2001

Includes descriptions of major works, prominent literary characters, and author biographies.

Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical  

Location: Ref. PN 50 .L574 1997

Literature Resource Center (LRC)   

http://0-infotrac.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/itweb/wash43584?db=LitRC

Full-text biographical, bibliographical, and critical analysis of more than 100,000 world authors and works throughout history and across all literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and journalism). Enables you to search by literary movement (e.g., Harlem Renaissance), gender, or author ethnicity (e.g., African American).

Electronic version of such older print reference sources as:
Contemporary Literary Criticism: Ref. PN 771 .C59
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism: Ref. PN 761 .N56
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism: Ref. PN 771 .G27
Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism: Ref. PN 610 .C53
Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800: Ref. PN 86 .L53 1984
Shakespearean Criticism: Ref. PR 2965 .S43 1984
Poetry Criticism: Ref. PN 1010 .P499
Short Story Criticism: Ref. PN 3373 .S386
Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature: Ref. PN 41 .M42 1995
Scribner Writers Series
Twayne Authors Series

Essay and General Literature Index  

http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?prod=EGL

1900-

Index to collections of essays with emphasis on the humanities and social sciences. The unique aspect of this index is that it cites chapters from books and anthologies. Use Essay and General Literature Index Retrospective for 1900 to 1984.

Short Story Index  

http://0-vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?prod=SHSI

1915-present

Indexes short stories published in collections, anthologies and periodicals. Short Story Index contains the full text of over 4,000 short stories, starting with works published in 1984. Use Short Story Index Retrospective for 1915 to 1983. Search by author, title, keyword, source, date or subject, including people in the stories, genres and locales where the stories take place.

Project Gutenberg  

http://www.gutenberg.org

The Project Gutenberg philosophy is to make information, books, and other materials available to the general public that people can easily read, use, quote, and search.

Help using this Resource

GEORGE   

http://catalog.library.georgetown.edu/

Subject Searching: To find books of literary criticism in GEORGE, the online catalog, look up the author's name (last name, first name) as a subject. Many different subheadings can appear under this subject heading, but note particularly "Criticism and interpretation" (e.g., Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 — Criticism and interpretation) and "Bibliography" (e.g., James, Henry, 1843-1916 — Bibliography). If a specific work has been widely studied, you might find a subheading devoted just to it (e.g., Walker, Alice, 1944 — Color Purple).
Keyword Searching: If you are looking for books on a topic (e.g., views on gender during the Renaissance), it may be difficult to determine a correct subject heading. Try one of these approaches: search for the title of a book that you know addresses your topic and look at its subject headings or do a keyword search.
Tips for keyword searching: Use the * symbol to represent one or more letters at the end of a word (e.g., sex* retrieves sex, sexist, sexual, sexuality, sexism).
Combining terms:
AND - both terms must be present
renaissance AND gender
OR - any of the terms may be present (use for synonyms/related terms)
gender OR women OR feminism Example: (gender OR women OR feminism) AND renaissance AND (england or great britain)

Library of Congress Catalog  

http://catalog.loc.gov/

The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world. An unparalleled world resource, the collection holds more than 138 million items, including more than 32 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 61 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings. The Library of Congress occupies three buildings on Capitol Hill. To make use of its resources as a Georgetown affiliate, consult GU-LC Connection. General information for researchers appears at LC's Researchers page.

WorldCat   

http://0-newfirstsearch.oclc.org.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/autho=100161383;dbname=WorldCat;screen=advanced;done=http://www.library.georgetown.edu;FSIP

WorldCat is a catalog consisting of over 100 million records for books and other materials in over 60,000 libraries. NOTE: Available only to Georgetown University students, faculty, and staff. A publicly accessible version is available at http://www.worldcat.org/.

WRLC Catalog  

http://catalog.wrlc.org/

The catalog of the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC): George Washington, American, Catholic, George Mason, Gallaudet, and Marymount Universities, the University of the District of Columbia, and Georgetown University. Georgetown students may borrow directly from WRLC libraries or request items via the WRLC Catalog.

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts  

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/alex

A collection of digital documents in the subject areas of English and American literature and Western philosophy.

Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia  

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/

An online archive of thousands of electronic texts from 1500 to present.

Oxford Text Archive  

http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/

One of the oldest electronic text archives, OTA holds over 2,500 titles in various languages, including editions of works by individual authors as well as standard reference works such as the Bible and mono- and bi-lingual dictionaries.

On-Line Literary Resources  

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/%7Ejlynch/Lit/

Links to literary criticism, guides, bibliographies, newsgroups, electronic journals, and literary texts.

Voice of the Shuttle  

http://vos.ucsb.edu/

Gateway to literary criticism, guides, bibliographies, newsgroups, electronic journals, and literary texts.

On-Line Books Page  

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

Search or browse, by author or title, for thousands of online books.

17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers  

http://0-infotrac.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/itweb/wash43584?db=BBCN

1600-1700

Gathered by Reverend Charles Burney, 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers is a collection of the newspapers and news pamphlets primarily published in London, with some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and examples from the American colonies. The original Burney volumes are now in a poor physical state and only available through restricted use.

British Periodicals   

http://0-britishperiodicals.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/

17th through early 20th centuries

Facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, archaeology, architecture, and the social sciences.

Early American Imprints (Series I): Evans, 1639-1800  

http://0-infoweb.newsbank.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/?db=EVAN&s_startsearch=customized

Based on the Evans American Bibliography, this collection contains the full text of all known existing books, pamphlets and broadsides printed in the United States or in the British American colonies from 1639 through 1819. It provides a foundation for research in early American history, literature, philosophy, religion, politics and nearly every aspect of life in early America. When completed, the digital collection will include every item previously published in microform by Readex, plus more than 1,200 additional works located, catalogued and digitized since the microform effort was completed -- more than 36,000 works and 2,400,000 images.

Early English Books Online (EEBO)   

http://0-eebo.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/

EEBO contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Beginning with the first book published in English, EEBO includes works by authors such as Malory, Spenser, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, Galileo, Purcell, Shakespeare, and Aphra Behn. Besides literature, EEBO also includes prayer books, pamphlets, proclamations, almanacs, and calendars. The digital images accurately reflect the way the works appeared in their original printed editions. EEBO is searchable by author, title, keyword, printer, publication date, Library of Congress subject heading, and illustration type (e.g., maps, plates, coats of arms), enabling researchers to make connections between works they may never have consulted otherwise. Note: Any EEBO researcher can view the 250,000 page-image editions of EEBO titles, but only TCP partners can view these images plus the corresponding full ASCII text. That is, TCP researchers can search every word in EEBO titles that have been converted to text format rather than just the words that appear in citations to these texts. See the EEBO-TCP entry for more information.

Help using this Resource

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)   

http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/servlet/ECCO?locID=wash43584

18th century

Digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century. Includes full-text searching of approximately 26 million pages. Covers the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era, Reconstruction I & II and Gilded Age I (1857-1912)  

http://0-app.harpweek.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/

1857-1912

Provides electronic access to all issues of Harper's Weekly (including all illustrations and advertisements) published between 1857 (first issue) and 1912, with the capacity to browse or search by date, by literary genre, and by a person's occupation or role in society. Provides four topical indexes: subject (including personal names), illustrations, literature & publishing, and advertising. Covers the Civil War era through the first part of the Gilded Age.

Literature Online (LION)   

http://0-lion.chadwyck.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/

1996-

Fully searchable library of more than 350,000 full-text works of English and American poetry, drama, and fiction with complementary criticism, reference resources, and websites. Includes over 800 clips of poets reading their own and other poets' work. Also allows you to:
--search both the MLA International Bibliography and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, with links to full-text articles from over 200 literature journals.
--find a list of works by or about a particular author
--search simultaneously across primary works and secondary sources
--access 1,550 author biographies

Includes full-text databases such as African-American Poetry, Twentieth-Century American Poetry, Early English Prose Fiction, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, English Drama, English Poetry

Includes reference sources such as The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, Encyclopedia of the Novel, New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, the King James Bible, and Webster's Third New International Dictionary

Shakespeare Collection  

http://0-shakespeare.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/shax/dispAdvSearch.do?prodId=SHAX&userGroupName=wash43584

The Shakespeare Collection provides online access to:
--The Arden Shakespeare (full text of scholarly editions of the complete works of Shakespeare)
--Full-text scholarly journals on literary and interdisciplinary topics (e.g., Renaissance, Elizabethan studies, Early Modern English studies, film studies)
--The First Folio, key Quartos, and major editions and adaptations from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries
--Prompt books detailing productions from the 17th century onward, from The Folger Shakespeare Library Collection, The Harvard Theatre Collection, The Shakespeare Library Collection (Birmingham, England), and The Shakespeare Centre Library Collection (Stratford-upon-Avon)
--Selected works by Shakespeare's contemporaries and other works available during Shakespeare's time
--The Gordon Crosse Theatrical Diary (eyewitness account of more than 60 years of Shakespeare productions)
--Reference materials providing background and context (e.g., Scribner's Shakespeare: His World, His Work, His Influence and Encyclopedia of the Renaissance)
--Photographs, line drawings, maps, and other illustrations of performances

Middle English Compendium  

http://0-www.hti.umich.edu.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/mec/

1100-1500

The Middle English Compendium provides hyperlinks between three major Middle English electronic resources: an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary (MED), a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse (based on the MED bibliographies), and other related electronic resources including a collection of more than 50 Middle English texts.
Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse--A growing collection of Middle English electronic texts eventually to include all editions of Middle English texts used in the MED and the more recent scholarly editions that may have superseded them.

Women Writers Online  

http://0-www.wwp.brown.edu.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/texts/wwoentry.html

The “textbase” of the Women Writers Project at Brown University, Women Writers Online provides full-text editions of more than 200 English-language works written by women between 1400 and 1850. The texts, which can be both browsed and searched, were drawn from a range of genres, including novels, drama, poetry, letters, speeches, religious tracts, philosophical writings, cookbooks, histories, trial narratives, advice books, works in translation, and introductions to translated works. More texts will eventually be added. Also included in Women Writers Online is Renaissance Women Online, a collection of 100 Renaissance texts accompanied by contextual and topical essays that discuss recurring cultural and textual themes. The essays introduce issues that emerge in Renaissance texts and provide a thematic method of navigation by linking texts with similar concerns. Women Writers Online also contains links to other textual databases and a collection of syllabi.

NINES: Nineteenth-Century Studies Online  

http://nines.org/

1770-1920

Created as "a way for excellent work in digital scholarship to be produced, vetted, published, and recognized by the discipline," NINES is a "scholarly organization devoted to forging links between the material archive of the nineteenth century and the digital research environment of the twenty-first." Goals: to serve as a peer-reviewing body for digital work in the long 19th century (1770-1920), British and American; to support scholars’ priorities and best practices in the creation of digital research materials; and to develop software tools for new and traditional forms of research and critical analysis.

RefWorks  

http://0-www.refworks.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/refworks

RefWorks is an online research management, writing, and collaboration tool designed to help researchers gather, manage, store, and share information and generate citations and bibliographies.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers  

Designed for undergraduates. The style recommended by the Modern Language Association for preparing scholarly manuscripts and student research papers and the one endorsed by the GU English Department. To document sources from the World Wide Web, follow guidelines given in the above two sources or check the MLA Web site. A brief summary of the MLA handbook, Library's handout on MLA style, is available at the Reference Desk.

Location: Ref. LB 2369 .G53 1999

MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing  

For graduate students and beyond. The style recommended by the Modern Language Association for preparing scholarly manuscripts and student research papers and the one endorsed by the GU English Department. To document sources from the World Wide Web, follow guidelines given in the above two sources or check the MLA Web site. A brief summary of the MLA handbook, Library's handout on MLA style, is available at the Reference Desk.

Location: Ref. PN 147 .G444 2008