ENG 321 -- American literature to 1870

articles | books | reference | websites

Find articles

• MLA International Bibliography
  Comprehensive index of journal articles and books related to literature. This is the primary tool for finding literary criticism. Links to full-text when available, but expect to use ILLiad to request many of these articles or Summit to request books.
• Literature Resource Center
  Online access to literary criticism in over 250 journals. To find literary criticism on a specific author, use the basic search form and set these limits:
   
  
  • Person -- by or about
  • Peer-reviewed publications
  • Literary criticism (clear other content types)
• JSTOR
  Includes the full-text of about eighty scholarly journals in literature, usually from the first issue through from two to five years ago. It does not include current issues. While these journals should be indexed in the MLA Bibliography, searching JSTOR directly allows you to search for articles that, while not focused on a specific poem or story, may discuss it. Watch the publication dates.

Off-campus access to these databases is easy. When prompted, sign in with your SMU network/email user name and password. For problems, call 360.486.8803 or email us.

  

Find books

• O'Grady Library catalog -- to find books in Saint Martin's collection, in Summit, or beyond.

To find books on a particular author, do a subject search of the author's name or the author's name and the phrase "criticism and interpretation":

• SU:"Emerson, Ralph Waldo"
• SU:"Thoreau" SU:"criticism and interpretation""

Reference and other background sources

Selected online titles

• Literature Resource Center
  Detailed literary biographies from Gale's Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
• Oxford Reference Premium Online: Literature
  Includes The Oxford Companion to American Literature, The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, among other titles.
• American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present

Selected print titles

PS3054.C36 1995	Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau
PS1638.C32 1999	Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson
PS2386.H35 2007	Cambridge Introduction to Herman Melville
PS1331.M47 2007	Cambridge Introduction to Mark Twain
REF PS2630.S68 2001	Edgar Allan Poe A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Writings
REF PN41.E487	Encyclopedia of the Novel (1998)
REF PS2386.A24 2001	Herman Melville, A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Writings
REF PN81.J554	The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism (2005)
REF PS1331.R37 1995	Mark Twain A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Writings
REF PS217.W64 Nf6 1997	Nineteenth-Century American women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook
PS 374.S5 R43	A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English (2001)
REF LB2369.G53	MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (2009)

  

Websites

Citation guides and writing resources

• The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) -- MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Other resources

• English Department, Saint Martin's University
• Writing Center, Saint Martin's University

articles | books | reference | websites