LITERARY CRITICISM

BOOKS

Use the MPA library catalog and do a subject search for the author you wish to study. Look for a subject heading with the author's name, two dashes, and the subheading "criticism and interpretation."

Example: Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864--Criticism and interpretation

Most likely, the book you find will have a collection of critical essays on several works by the author.

Use this same strategy for searching public library catalogs.

REFERENCE BOOKS

Short Story Criticism (REF 809 Sho) - There are currently 54 volumes in this series which includes excerpts of criticism on major short fiction writers of all nationalities and time periods. Use the index in the last volume in the series and search by author.

Poetry Criticism (REF 809.1 Poe) - There are currently 42 volumes in this series which includes excerpts of criticism on major poets of all nationalities and time periods. Use the index in the back of the last volume in the series and search by author.

Poetry for Students (REF 808.81 Poe) - 20 volumes, use the index in the back of the last volume and search by title

Short Stories for Students (REF 808.81 Sho) - 20 volumes, use the index in the back of the last volume and search by title

Novels for Students (REF 809.3 Nov ) - 19 volumes, use the index in the back of the last volume and search by title

Drama for Students (REF 809.2 Dra) - 3 volumes

The Beat Generation: A Gale Critical Companion (REF 810.9 Bea) - 3 volumes

ONLINE RESOURCES

Look what I found by searching Google.

DISCOVERING COLLECTION (Gale) - This subscription service indexes full text articles from a wide variety of reference books. To find criticism on a particular work, do a keyword search for the title in quotes ("the waste land").

ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER (Ebsco) - This subscription service is an index of over 8 million articles from magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers. To find criticism do a keyword search for the title of the work and the word criticism ("the waste land" AND criticism).

LITERATURE RESOURCE CENTER (Gale) - Available through Minneapolis, Ramsy County, Hennepin County, and Dakota County public library systems. Visit a library or access the database through their web site with your library barcode and pin.

Internet Public Library: Literary Criticism - "The IPL Literary Criticism Collection contains critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period."

CITING SOURCES

NoodleBib (Online subscription for creating bibliographies.)