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Articles

  • MLA International Bibliography

    "The MLA International Bibliography is a subject index for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature. The electronic version of the Bibliography dates back to 1923 and contains over 1.7 million citations from more than 4,400 periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals) and 1,000 book publishers."

  • Literature Resource Center

    "Literature Resource Center provides comprehensive access to biographical information, literature criticism and reviews, overviews for authors and works from all time periods and all genres from around the world.  The database provides full text access to the articles and essays."

  • JSTOR

    Provides access to full-text, full-image, scholarly literature. The growing database contains the archives of major research journals in a variety of academic disciplines. JSTOR offers the scanned image of each journal page as it was originally designed, printed, and illustrated. Coverage for each journal starts with the very first issue, many of which date from the 1800's.

  • CPI.Q (Canadian Periodicals)
    Published monthly, the Canadian Periodical Index (CPI.Q) provides access to over 400 Canadian journals (both English- and French-language) with coverage dating back to 1947. Academic and popular sources on Canadian business, culture and history comprise much of the content available through CPI.Q, with only selected North American and international coverage.
  • Literature Online (LION)
    An ever-growing database of more than 260,000 works dated 600AD to the present (English poetry from 600 AD to present, American poetry from 1603 to present, English and American drama 1280 to 1915, English prose 1500 to 1900, and more), Literature Online includes biographies, bibliographies (such as the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature), web links and key secondary sources from the twentieth century.
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Biographies

  • Literary Biography Research Guide

    This Literary Biography Research Guide was created by The D. B. Weldon Library, Research & Instructional Services. It provides a sampling of biography resources  for literary persons, living or dead, male or female. This group of sources may also include dramatists, playwrights, poets, screenwriters, literary characters, publishers, etc.

  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is an illustrated collection of 57,000+ specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of the history of the British Isles and beyond from the earliest times to 2006. The online version is updated three times a year. This resource is also available in print at DBW reference DA28.O95 2004.
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online

    The Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online provides more than 16,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres. Comprised of the award-winning Dictionary of Literary Biography series, which over its 30-year history, the DLB Complete Online includes the DLB main series, the DLB Documentary Series, and the DLB Yearbook Series - all delivered in an easy-to-use 24/7 online format that matches the exact look and feel of the print originals. Also available in print, DBW reference PS129.D47.

  • American National Biography

    The American National Biography provides a comprehensive examination of the diversity of the men and women who have in some way shaped the history of the United States. The database features over 18,300 biographies, including the 17,435 original biographies from the print edition. Three times a year new biographies are added and others are revised. The American National Biography entries are cross-reference linked to counterpart entries in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , which permits comparisons of subjects in their American and British contexts.  Also available in print, DBW reference CT213.A65 1999.

  • Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

    The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online presents biographies of individuals whose death or last known activity occurred in the years from 1000 to 1930. The biographies include those from all walks of life, different ethnic groups, and all regions of Canada. The biographies represent a range of professions and occupations---business people, artists, politicians, nurses, judges, physicians, soldiers, athletes, lawyers, poets, farmers, workers, clerics, and entertainers. Also available in print, DBW reference CT283.D5.

  • Dictionary of Irish Biography

    The Dictionary of Irish Biography is the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary published for Ireland.  It contains 9,014 signed biographical articles which describe and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, and medicine.  Entries include prominent men and women born in Ireland, north and south, as well as the noteworthy Irish careers of those born outside Ireland. The chronological coverage extends from earliest times to 2002.  All entrants in DIB are deceased.

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Dictionaries

  • Oxford English Dictionary (OED Online)

    The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from those of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You'll still find these in the OED, but you'll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to films scripts and cookery books. The OED started life more than 150 years ago. Today, the dictionary is in the process of its first major revision. Updates revise and extend the OED at regular intervals, each time subtly adjusting our image of the English language. Also available in print, DBW reference PE1625.M7 1989.

  • Dictionary of Old English Corpus

    The Dictionary of Old English is based on a computerized Corpus comprising at least one copy of each text surviving in Old English. The body of surviving Old English texts encompasses a rich diversity of records written on parchment, carved in stone and inscribed in jewelry. These texts fall into several categories: prose, poetry, glosses to Latin texts and inscriptions. In the prose in particular, there is a wide range of texts: saints' lives, sermons, biblical translations, penitential writings, laws, charters and wills, records (of manumissions, land grants, land sales, land surveys), chronicles, a set of tables for computing the moveable feasts of the Church calendar and for astrological calculations, medical texts, prognostics (the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the horoscope), charms (such as those for a toothache or for an easy labour), and even cryptograms. The DOE is also available in print, DBW stack PE279.D53.

  • Middle English Dictionary

    The Middle English Dictionary (MED) and Its 15,000 pages offers a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500, based on the analysis of a collection of over three million citation slips, the largest collection of this kind available. This electronic version of the MED preserves all the details of the print MED, but goes far beyond this, by converting its contents into a searhable database. The MED is also available in print, DBW reference PE679.M54.

  • Lexicons of Early Modern English

    Lexicons of Early Modern English (LEME) is a historical database of monolingual, bilingual, and polyglot dictionaries, lexical encyclopedias, hard-word glossaries, spelling lists, and lexically-valuable treatises surviving in print or manuscript from the Tudor, Stuart, Caroline, Commonwealth, and Restoration periods. Texts of word-entries whose headword (source) or explanation (target) language is English tell us what speakers of English thought about their tongue in the period served by the Short-title and Wing catalogues, from the advent of printing to about 1700.

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms

    The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms provides clear, concise, and often witty definitions of the most troublesome literary terms. Now available in a new, fully updated and expanded edition, it offers readers increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, and schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction. It includes extensive coverage of traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history, as well as updated and extended advice on recommended further reading and a pronunciation guide to more than 200 terms. New to this fully revised edition are recommended entry-level web links. Boasting over 1,200 entries, it is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language.

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Encyclopedias

  • Oxford Reference Online

    Oxford Reference Online (ORO) is an online collection of authoritative language and subject reference works (such as: dictionaries, encyclopedias and thesauruses) from one of the world's biggest reference publishers: Oxford University Press. Short entries include brief, factual informaiton (e.g. illustrations, maps, timelines, etc.) while longer entries provide in-depth subject coverage and often link to related ORO entries. The Core Collection (ORO) is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database; the Premium Collection (OROP) provides added functionality and more detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions series. For a complete list of subjects and books included in the Oxford Reference Online collection, consult the Books and Subject listings.

  • Oxford Companion to English Literature

    The Oxford Companion to English Literature covers all aspects of English literature ― from writers, their works, and the historical and cultural context in which they wrote, to critics, literary theory, and allusions. For the seventh edition, the Companion has been thoroughly revised and updated. Over 1,000 new entries have been added, ranging from new writers to increased coverage of writers and literary movements from around the world. Contextual and historical coverage has also been expanded, with new entries on European history and culture, post-colonial literature, as well as writers and literary movements from around the world that have influenced English literature. Also available in print, DBW reference PR19.H3 2009.

  • The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English

    "This illustrated and fully updated Third Edition of The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English is the most authoritative and international survey of world literature in English available. The Guide covers everything from Old English to contemporary writing from all over the English-speaking world. There are entries on writers from Britain and Ireland, the USA, Canada, India, Africa, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific, as well as on many important poems, novels, literary journals and plays. This new edition has been brought completely up to date with more than 280 new author entries, most of them for living authors. "--BOOK JACKET.  Available in print, DBW reference PR85.C29 2006.

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Literary Criticism

  • Literature Criticism Online

    Literary Criticicism Online provides full-text access to the following individual, award-winning Gale Literature Criticism series publications: Contemporary Literary Criticism®, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism®, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism®, Shakespearean Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400–1800, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, Drama Criticism and Children's Literature Review, each of which are available in print in The D.B. Weldon Library. Please note: Due to current copyright restrictions, some article content is not yet available online. Please consult the print editions for comprehensive coverage.

  • Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism

    Compiled by 275 specialists from around the world, the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements and is updated annually. It includes almost 300 alphabetically arranged entries and subentries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. Also available in print, DBW reference PN81.J55 2005.

    The Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory
  • Key Concepts in Literary Theory

    Key Concepts in Literary Theory provides authoritative and precise definitions of the most significant terms and concepts currently used in psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, Marxist, feminist, and postcolonial literary studies. The volume also presents clear discussions of the main areas of literary, critical, and cultural theory, supported by bibliographies and a chronology of major thinkers. Accompanying the chronology are short biographies of major works by each critic or theorist. This revised edition of this comprehensive reference includes definition for more than seventy new terms and concepts, from Absurdism and Aga Saga to Writerly texts and Zeugma; a broader selection of classical rhetorical terms; an expanded chronology with a wider historical and cultural range, from Immanuel Kant to G.W.F. Hegel and bell hooks; and richer bibliographies including key texts by major critics. Available in print, DBW reference PN44.5.W643 2006.

  • Gale Group Literary Index
    A master index to the major literature products published by Gale. Combines and cross references 141,000 author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and listings for 184,000 titles from 114 Gale literature resources, including Charles Scribner's Sons, St. James Press, and Twayne Publishers.
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Primary Resources

  • Primary Resources Research Guide

    Prepared by staff in the Research & Instructional Services department of The D.B. Weldon Library, The Primary Resources Resesarch Guide provides an annotated listing of primary research resources available via Western Libraries and arranged by geographic region (e.g. Canada, America, Britain, etc). Western Libraries provides access to thousands of primary documents in print, microform and electronic format.  Consult the primary sources pages, which are listed by geographic region in the Table of Contents of the Guide to find resources appropriate to your topic.  Listed on each page are selected online resources that provide access to comprehensive collections of primary sources for specific regions, time periods, and topic areas.

  • Early English Books Online (EEBO)

    Early English Books Online (EEBO) is a major research collection providing images of over 100,000 imprints from 1475 to 1700. Publications in English and foreign languages printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, British America are included, plus English books printed in other countries from 1641-1700. Subjects range from popular culture, literature, philosophy, politics and science to religion. The database includes titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661), comprising almanacs, calendars, musical exercises, novels, prayer books, pamphlets, proclamations and other primary sources. Searchable fields include Author, Title, Printer, Publication date, Type of illustration, and Library of Congress subject heading. Records are linked to the corresponding page images, downloadable in Adobe® PDF.

  • Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

    A full-text, full-image archive of 35,000 English and foreign language materials ranging in publication date from 1701 to 1800. The entire ECCO collection provides access to the digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th century. With full-text searching, the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more. Essayists, novelists, poets and playwrights are included. Topics include drama, poetry, ballads, religion, grammar, dictionaries, songs from plays, satire, book catalogues, etc. Languages include English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish, Welsh, and others. Searches by author, title, publisher, full-text, front matter, back-of-book indexes, etc. are supported.

  • Eighteenth Century Journals (1685 - 1815)

    The Eighteenth Century Journals Portal consists of rare newspapers and journals illuminating all aspects of 18th-century social, political and literary life.  Individual series in the portal may be searched individually or concurrently.  Series I contains periodicals from the Hope Collection of the Bodleian Library; Series II includes newspapers and periodicals from the Harry Ransome Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, and Series III draws on the British Newspaper Library and Cambridge University LIbrary.  Many materials are ephemeral, lasting only for a handful of issues, while others run for several years.  Collectively, these materials offer effective coverage of the important issues of the period, and are invaluable to the study of all aspects of the 18th century, including crime, sport, advertising, the theatre; fashion; politics, revolution; agriculture; social issues and society life.

  • Caribbean Literature
    This is a searchable collection of poetry and fiction produced in the region during the 19th and 20th centuries. Titles include numerous rare and hard-to-find works written in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and various Creole languages. New content is uploaded on a biweekly basis, providing immediate access to a steadily growing treasury of classic, rare, and contemporary literature. The database currently has over 72,000 pages.
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