University Library > Internet Resources > Literature

Literature

Table of Contents:

Authors Electronic Text Archives Electronic Text Centers Departments & Institutes Electronic Courses Organizations & Societies Databases

eJournals Classified Resource Directories Comprehensive Specialized Awards Style Guides

SEE ALSO: Syllabus for Literary Research guides:

1. a. General Sources: Literary Research Guides, Bibliographies & Indexes of Literary Criticism
   b. General Sources: Literary Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Histories and Summaries
2. Biography of Authors
3. Fiction: Novels
4. Fiction: Short Stories
5. Poetry
6. Drama

Authors

• Biographies Plus (WilsonWeb)
  Contains almost 40,000 full text biographies of Authors, Artists, Film Directors, Nobel Prize Winners, American reformers, Musicians and Composers.
• Contemporary Authors
  Offers biographical and bibliographical information on nearly 100,000 modern authors, including novelists, poets, screenwriters, journalists and other nonfiction writers.
• Literary Index

Electronic Text Centers

• Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH) - (Rutgers Univ.)
• Electronic Text Center - (Univ. of Virginia)
• Electronic Texts (eTexts) - (Andersen Library, UW-Whitewater) - eText gateway

Electronic Text Archives

• Bartleby.com: Great Books Online.
• Black Drama-1850 to Present
  Black Drama integrates approximately 1,200 rare and hard-to-find plays written from the 1850s to the present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean and other African Diaspora countries. Includes many previously unpublished plays.
• British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
  The largest collection of British and Irish women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled. Spanning more than 300 years, it offers the personal experiences of more than 1,000 women  and will eventually include approximately 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from the 1500 to 1900. The collection represents many age groups and life stages, geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous.
• British Poetry 1780-1910: a Hypertext Archive of Scholarly Editions - (Electronic Text Center, Univ. of Virginia)
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
  Contains digital images of every page of 150,000+ books published during the 18th century. Covers as wide range of topics, including literature.
• Electronic Text Collections in Western European Literature - (Western European Studies Section, ACRL)
• HTI American Verse Project - (Univ. of Michigan)
• Middle English Collection - (Electronic Text Center, Univ. of Virginia)
• Modern English Collection - (Electronic Text Center, Univ. of Virginia)
• North American Immigrant Letters and Diaries, and Oral Histories
  This collection includes 71 authors and approximately 10,000 pages of information which provides a personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. It is composed of letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews and other personal narratives.
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colony to 1950
  This collection includes one of the most comprehensive bibliographies of women's diaries and letters yet published. It lists over 2,000 published and unpublished items from a variety of sources, including online resources and microform. It includes biographical information and the texts of many items. Represented are a variety of age groups, life stages, ethnicities, geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous.
• Representative Poetry On-Line - (Univ. of Toronto)
• Victorian Women Writers Project - (Indiana Univ.)
• Women Writers Project - (Brown Univ. )

Departments & Institutes

• 100 English Department Home Pages - (Rutgers Univ.)
• English Departments Home Pages Worldwide - (David L. Hoover, New York Univ.)

Electronic Courses

• World Lecture Hall - (University of Texas) - To locate online literature courses, click on Browse by Area, then on Comparative Literature, English / Writing / Rhetoric or another subject area

Organizations & Societies

• Calls for Papers - (Univ. of Pennsylvania)
• Modern Language Association
• Resources of Scholarly Societies: Literature - (Univ. of Waterloo)

Databases

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science: 1987 - )  
Multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities, including literary studies.

Black Drama – 1850 to Present  
Includes published and unpublished plays written from the 1850s to the present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African Diaspora countries.

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries  
The largest collection of British and Irish women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled. Includes published letters and diaries from individuals writing from 1500 to 1900.

Early English Books Online (ProQuest)  
Contains over 96,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475 - 1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, in the fields of English literature, philosophy, linguistics, and more.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)  
Provides access to the digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century. Provides access to critical information in the fields of literature, religion, law, and more.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
Delivers great reference resources in a database format. Subject areas include History, Literature, Multicultural Studies, Social Science and Technology. Click on "Show All" in database to view expanded list of titles in each subject area.

Humanities Full Text (WilsonWeb : 1984- )    
Indexes and abstracts articles from more than 350 English-language periodicals, plus the full text of over 95 of those periodicals. It covers the fields of classical studies, folklore, journalism and communications, language and literature, literary criticism, philosophy, religion and theology, and more. Full-text coverage begins in January 1995.

Humanities International Complete (EBSCOhost)      
A comprehensive database covering journals, books and other important reference sources in the humanities. It provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracting for over 1,700 journals and contains more than 1.5 million records.

JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II, & III Collection      
JSTOR is an electronic journal archival project which provides full-text access to complete runs of back issues of over 550 scholarly journal titles in approximately 40 fields.

LitFinder
FREE to all residents of Wisconsin via BadgerLink
Full text plays, poems, short stories, essays and speeches.  Can search by genre, subject, title, author and timeline.

Literary Index
FREE
The master index to the printed editions of the 43 literary series published by Gale. These series contain complete biographies on authors and critical essays on their writings.

Literature Criticism Online  
Provides full text access to complete biographies on authors and critical essays on their writings from several of the major Gale series of criticism included in Literary Index. Includes Children's Literature Review, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Literary Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Nineteen-Century Literary Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Short Story Criticism, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.

Literature Criticism Online  
Includes all the above, but also The Dictionary of Literary Biography and Something About the Author. Has less exact search capabilities than the above.

MagillOnLiterature (EBSCOhost)      
The definitive online source for editorially reviewed critical analyses and brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history of literature. This database, which is compiled by Salem Press, contains all of Masterplots and Masterplots II, Cyclopedia of World Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, and Magill's Literary Annual.

MLA Directory of Periodicals (EBSCOhost)    
Lists the over 4,400 periodicals in the areas of literature, language, linguistics, and folklore that are covered regularly in the MLA International Bibliography. The directory provides addresses, advertising rates, and information about submissions for publication

MLA International Bibliography (EBSCOhost)    
The largest and most comprehensive database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics, literature, folklore, and drama, including film, opera, radio, television and theater. Literary criticism and literary theory are covered extensively.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colony to 1950  
Lists over 2,000 published and unpublished women's diaries and letters from a variety of sources, including online resources and microform. Drawn from more than 1,000 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, much of the material is in copyright.

Project Muse    
Provides access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

New York Times Book Review
FREE with registration
Includes the complete Sunday Book Review, daily book related news and reviews, a searchable archive of over 50,000 New York Times Book Reviews, bestseller lists, and more.

Sage Premier Journals Online  
SAGE Premier provides electronic access to peer-reviewed, full-text journals in the Humanities and other subjects.

ScienceDirect College Edition  
Extensive Full Text access to the Elsevier journal collections relevant to humanities and other subjects.

Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period  
Contains 60 volumes of Romantic Poetry, extensive contemporary critical reviews, as well as material specially written for this database by leading scholars.

eJournals

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - This directory covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. The full text of articles are freely available. The goal is to cover all subjects and languages. There are currently over 1000 journals in the directory.
• Early Modern Literary Studies - (Sheffield Hallam Univ. ) - 1 (1995) - present
  "a refereed journal serving as a formal arena for scholarly discussion and as an academic resource for researchers in the area."
• JSTOR Arts & Sciences Collections - (Univ. of Michigan)
  • African American Review 26 (1992) - 3 years ago (moving wall)
    • continues Black American Literature Forum 10 (1976) - 25 (1991)
      • continues Negro American Literature Forum 1 (1967) - 10 (1976)
  • American Literature [archive] (See ° Project Muse for current issues) 1 (1929) - 71 (1999)
  • Callaloo [archive] (See ° Project Muse for current issues) 1 (1976) - 41 (1989) & 13 (1990) - 17 (1994)
  • ELH  [archive] (See ° Project Muse for current issues) 1 (1934) - 61 (1994)
  • MLN [archive] (See ° Project Muse for current issues) 77 (1962) - 109 (1994)
    • continues Modern Language Notes 1 (1886) - 76(1961)
  • Nineteenth Century Literature 41 (1986) - 4 years ago (moving wall)
    • continues Nineteenth Century Fiction 4 (1949) - 41 (1986)
      • continues Trollopian 1 (1945) - 3 (1949)
  • Representations no. 1 (1983) - 4 years ago (moving wall)
  • Shakespeare Quarterly [archive] 1 (1950) - 51 (2000)
  • Speculum 1 (1926) - 5 years ago (moving wall)
  • Transition 1 (1961) - 5 years ago (moving wall)
  • Yale French Studies 1 (1948) - 2 years ago (moving wall)

• Milton Review
• Project Muse - (Johns Hopkins Univ.)
  • American Imago quarterly. 52 (1995) - present
  • American Journal of Philology quarterly. 117 (1996) - present
  • American Literary History quarterly. 12 (2000) - present
  • American Literary Scholarship quarterly. (1998) - (1999)
  • American Literature quarterly. 7 (1999) - present
  • The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies 20 (2000) - 21 (2001)
  • Arethusa triannual. 29 (1996) - present
  • Biography quarterly. 23 (2000) - 24 (2001)
  • Callaloo (see ° JSTOR for older issues) quarterly. 18 (1995) - present
  • Chaucer Review quarterly. 34 (2000) - present
  • Common Knowledge triannual. 8 (2002) - present
  • Comparative Literature Studies quarterly. 37 (2000) - present
  • Configurations triannual. 1 (1993) - 9 (2001)
  • Diacritics quarterly. 26 (1996) - 30 (2000)
  • Eighteenth-century Life triannual. 20 (1996) - 25 (2001)
  • Eighteenth-century Studies quarterly. 29 (1995-1996) - present
  • ELH (English Literary History) (see ° JSTOR for older issues) quarterly. 60.4 (1993) - 67 (2000)
  • The Emily Dickinson Journal biannual. 7 (1998) - present
  • Essays in Medieval Studies annual. 18 (2002) - present
  • The Hemingway Review biannual . 23 (2003-2004) - present
  • The Henry James Review triannual. 16 (1995) - present
  • Journal of Modern Greek Studies biannual. 14 (1996) - 19 (2001)
  • Journal of Modern Literature quarterly. 22 (1998-1999) - 24 (2000-2001)
  • Journal of the History of Ideas quarterly. 57 (1996) - present
  • Joyce Studies Annual annual. 12 (2001) - present
  • The Lion and the Unicorn triannual. 19 (1995) - present
  • Literature and Medicine biannual. 14 (1995) - present
  • Manoa twice a year. 11 (1999) - 13 (2001)
  • Milton Quarterly quarterly. 31 (1997) - 34 (2000)
  • Modern Fiction Studies quarterly. 40 (1994) - present
  • Modern Language Quarterly quarterly. 60 (1999) - present
  • Modernism/Modernity triannual. 2 (1995) - present
  • MLN (see ° JSTOR for older issues) five times a year. 108 (1993) - present
    • continues Modern Language Notes
  • Narrative triannual. 10 (2002) - present
  • New Literary History quarterly. 26 (1995) - present
  • Oral Tradition biannual. 18 (2003) - present
  • Philosophy and Literature biannual. 20 (1996) - 25 (2001)
  • Poetics Today quarterly. 20 (1999) - present
  • Postmodern Culture triannual. 1 (1990-1991) - present
  • Research in African Literatures quarterly. 30 (1999) - present
  • Resources for American Literary Study biannual. 25 (1999) - 27 (2001)
  • Shakespeare Quarterly quarterly. 52 (2001) - present
  • South Central Review triannual. 21 (2004) - present
  • Studies in American Indian Literatures quarterly. 16 (2004) - present
  • Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 quarterly. 39 (1999) - present
  • Victorian Poetry quarterly. 38 (2000) - present
  • Victorian Studies quarterly. 42 (1999/2000) present
  • The Yale Journal of Criticism biannual. 9 (1996) - present

Classified Resource Directories

Comprehensive

• Intute: Arts & Humanities - (University of Oxford)
  Humbul Humanities Hub and Artifact have merged to form this hub for research and educational websites
• Literary Resources on the Net - (Jack Lynch, Rutgers Univ.)
• UW-Whitewater Humanities Databases -
• Voice of the Shuttle: Literature in English - (Univ. of California - Santa Barbara) - list of literature links
• Voice of the Shuttle: Literatures (Other than English) Page - (Univ. of California - Santa Barbara) - list of literature links subdivided by language

Specialized

• American Verse Project: Bibliography - (Univ. of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative)
• Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD)
  This database contains information about children's books, including over 150,000 full text reviews from 27 sources including The Cooperative Children's Book Center [CCBC] in Madison
• Contemporary Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English
• Dickens Project.
• Literary Terms by Category - University of Victoria's Writer's Guide
• LitFINDER
  This is an index to published poems (Poem Finder), an index to published short stories (Short Story Finder), and several others which may be searched simultaneously or individually. Some full text is included, so for those without, search for the publication using the University Library Catalog.
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colony to 1950
  This collection includes one of the most comprehensive bibliographies of women's diaries and letters published. It lists over 2,000 published and unpublished items. Much of the material is in copyright. Represented are many age groups and life stages, ethnicities, geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous.
• Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry - (Library of Congress)
• Portals to the World - (Library of Congress) - Contains selective links to over 67 countries and areas of the world, providing authoritative, in-depth information on a variety of topics. Of most interest is Language and Literature, which includes titles of reference works and websites on the topic. When completed, the project will include all the nations of the world.
• Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period
  This database contains 60 volumes of Romantic Poetry, extensive contemporary critical reviews, as well as material specially written for this database by leading scholars.

Awards

• Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature - (Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies UW-Milwaukee)
• Awards and Best-of-the-Year Lists - (Cooperative Children's Book Center, School of Education, UW-Madison)
• Caldecott Medal - (ALA)
• Canadian Awards Index - (Canadian Children's Book Centre)
• Coretta Scott King Book Award - (ALA)
• Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
• MLA: Annual Prize and Award Winners
• National Book Award Winners
• Newbery Medal - (ALA)
• Nobel Prize in Literature - (Nobel Foundation)
• Poetry Society of America Awards
• Pulitzer Prizes

Style Guides

• How do I document sources from the Web in my works-cited list? These guidelines are the only ones authorized by MLA.
• MLA Style Electronic Formats from Mary Ellen Guffey (March 1997) "Formats for the Citation of Electronic Sources in Business Writing" Business Communication Quarterly 60 (1) 59-76. Online version last revised, August 25, 2001.
• Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor, Columbia Guide to Online Style - a humanities style (i.e., MLA and Chicago) and a scientific style (APA and CBE) for electronically-accessed sources. - (Columbia University Press, 1998)
• Using Modern Language Association (MLA Format) - (the Purdue University Online Writing Lab) - Contains helpful hints and links.