Background Info - English Research - Literary Criticism - Research Guides at Santa Barbara City College

Reference Databases

Encyclopedias and other reference books are an excellent starting point for your research. They can provide background information and help you identify keywords to use when searching for books and articles.

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Credo Reference
Contains the full text of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books.

Contains the full text of over 1,000 encyclopedias, dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, and other reference books covering all major subject areas. Thousands of Topics Pages provide articles from different reference sources, arranged by subject. Includes “gadgets” for finding images, definitions, people, pronunciations, quotations, and measurement conversations, as well as a concept map feature for help identifying keywords and broadening or narrowing a topic. Additional features include videos, maps, and animations.
Gale Ebooks
Full-text encyclopedias and specialized reference books covering all major subject areas.

Contains the full text of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources. Subjects covered include arts, biography, business, education, environment, history, law, literature, medicine, multicultural studies, government and political science, religion, science, and social sciences.

Reference Books

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics by Roland Greene, et al.
Call Number: eBook

Publication Date: 2012

Provides the most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of its subject including history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, and critical terms.
Shakespeare for Students by Anne Marie Hacht
Call Number: R 822.33 xS428s 2007

Publication Date: 2007

Each entry provides: An introduction and overview; A plot summary; An annotated character list; A discussion of the play's principal theme; Understandable essays on the plays construction (setting, dialogue, imagery); Historical and cultural context; Critical commentary; Theme and character index.
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism by Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth, and Imre Szeman (Editors)
Call Number: R 801.95 G873j 2005

Publication Date: 2004

An international, encyclopedic guide to the field's most important figures, schools, and movements, literary theory, and criticism.
Twentieth Century Literary Movements Dictionary by Helene Henderson and Jay P. Pederson (Editors)
Call Number: R 809.91 H496t

Publication Date: 2000

Entries are international in scope, and describe some 500 major and less well-known literary movements and terms of the 20th century. Each entry describes writers identified with the movement; representative works; and historical and cultural context.
A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms by Edward Quinn
Call Number: R 803 Q7d and eBook

Publication Date: 1999

This book gives students not only a traditional literary vocabulary but also the knowledge of related theoretical, historical, and cultural terms they need in the interdisciplinary world of contemporary literary studies.
Encyclopedia of Allegorical Literature by David A. Leeming; Kathleen Morgan Drowne
Call Number: R 809.915 L485e

Publication Date: 1996

More than 400 concise articles covering all aspects of literary allegory: the device wherein characters, situations, and actions stand for ideas.

English Research - Literary Criticism: Background Info

Reference Databases

Reference Books