LITERARY CRITICISM

A Faulk Central Library Research Guide

What is literary criticism and where can I find it?
Literary criticism is the description, interpretation, and analysis of a novel, poem, story, or other written work, or of a group of works as a whole. Most literary criticism is in the form of an essay in a book or journal, but detailed reviews from magazines and newspapers can sometimes be considered literary criticism, too. It can be found mainly in books and articles in the library, and sometimes on the Internet as well. Although increasingly literary criticism is being made available on the Web, much of what is there requires users to subscribe to a service to get to the information. So for access to the widest range of reputable sources, you should plan on using materials available in the library as a part of your research.

How do I begin?
In the subject section of the library's catalog, look up your author's name. The library has many books on individual authors that you can check out to help you to understand and interpret a novel, short story, poem or play. Reference copies of some of these books are available in the general reference collection for use in the library, as well as many other reference books and indexes. Also, additional information can be found using literature databases available via the library's Internet computers.

Where do I find print reference sources?
They can be found in the general reference area, mainly in the 800's on shelf row 12. Usually you will find information in these sources by looking up an author or a title in the index. These indexes are frequently cumulative, in which case you would use the most recently published volume of the set to find the number of the volume you need. Here are just a few good titles:

What about using indexes?
An index is a source for finding specific information published in a periodical or as part of a book on a more general subject. We have indexes for locating critical information on authors and their works, but we may not have all the books and periodicals they index. The index will give you a citation for information on an author or title. Check the Library's catalog to find out if we own the book or periodical cited. Indexes at the Central library are located in the general reference area on the 2nd floor.

Book Review Digest & Book Review Index
These indexes are located on an index table toward the east end of the 2nd floor. Look up the author's name in the index, using the volume for the year your particular title was published, or for the year after. These are good for locating information on more recently-published works, and are also useful for finding out what the critics said about an older book when it was first published.

How do I find literary criticism on the Internet?

From the Library's online databases page (available either in the library or using your library card number from any remote Internet computer), click on Literature in the subject guide on the right hand side of the screen. From the list of several available databases that appears, select Literature Resource Center as your starting point. This database is comprised of portions of several of the encyclopedic print resources in the Library listed above, and several search options are available to you in it. Note that although this database provides a convenient entry point into several large print literature reference sources at the same time, checking the print versions of these sources sometimes reveals more information than is contained within the online versions. So for a more thorough search, be sure to utilize the print versions in the library, too. Academic Search Premier or MasterFILE Premier may also provide criticism that you can use, particularly if the work you're researching has been published fairly recently. Access any of these databases via the Library's database page either in the library or at home.

Another good starting point is LitLinks which is organized into the literary genres of fiction, drama, poetry, essays, and critical theory and browsable in each catagory by author. Litlinks has brief biographies and links to web sites of criticism and biographical information.

Either at the library or from home, visit the Internet Public Library's Literary Criticism . Using the search box, find critical and biographical information on a specific author, or criticism about a specific work.

Library Resources on the Net contains a fairly extensive and searchable guide to literary criticism, largely British and American.

For further assistance, see a librarian at the 2nd floor reference desk.

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