Representative resources for language and literature

Benét’s Reader’s encyclopedia
[PN 41 B4]

• Thousands of entries in Benét’s Reader’s encyclopedia cover anything and nearly everything having to do with literature. Includes biographies of authors, summaries of books and plays, depictions of characters and mythological figures, explications of literary terms and movements 
• Long history – numerous editions published
• Respected
• Reputable
• Similar to Brewer’s 
• Could be termed as a dictionary or handbook
• Good for high school, public and academic libraries
• http://www.amazon.com/Benets-Readers-Encyclopedia-5e-Edition/dp/0060890169/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355358794&sr=8-1&keywords=benet%27s+reader%27s+encyclopedia

A Handbook to literature

[PN 41 H355 2000]

• Provides quick definitions of literary terms from all genres. It also features a timeline of events in British and American literary history, as well as a listing of Nobel prize winners in literature, and Pulitzer prize winners for fiction, poetry, and drama.
• More specific
• College/university textbook
• Arranged alphabetically
• 2000+ entries
• Wide range of terms including radio, television terms
• Latest edition published in 2003
• http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/academic/product/0,,0130979988,00%2ben-uss_01dbc.html

The Bedford glossary of critical and literary terms

[PN 44.5 M86 1997]

• Cross-referenced and indexed, this glossary of critical and literary terms defines English terms as well as terms from other languages such as jouissance. To illustrate each entry common written references as well as occasional film and visual references are given. When available a brief history of the origin of the term is also offered.
• Appeals to students
• http://www.amazon.com/Bedford-Glossary-Critical-Literary-Murfin/dp/0230223303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355359298

Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory

[PN 41 .C83 1998]

• Covers all aspects of literary theory, from definitions of technical terms to characterizations of literary movement
• Geared toward students, teachers, readers, and writers
• Explains critical jargon (intertextuality, aporia), schools of literary theory (structuralism, feminist criticism), literary forms (sonnet, ottava rima), and genres (elegy, pastoral) and examines artifacts, historic locales, archetypes, origins of well-known phrases, etc.
• Suitable for all libraries
• A-Z listing of terms
• Each is different in content and spin
• http://www.amazon.com/Penguin-Dictionary-Literary-Terms-Theory/dp/0140513639/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355359516&sr=1-1

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms

[PN 41 B35 2001]

• Designed to tackle the less obvious terms that students and general readers will encounter
• Over 1,000 entries, covering all of the most taxing literary terms that readers may come across. Clear expectations are given for words such as multi-accentuality, postmodernism, and hypertext
• Provides extensive coverage of traditional drama, rhetoric, literary history, and textual criticism
• Gives pronunciation for over 200 terms
• Updated to include terms that have become prominent in literature in the last few years, from cyberpunk to antanaclasis
• http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Dictionary-Literary-Paperback-Reference/dp/0199208271/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355359896

New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics

[PN 1021 .E5 1993]

• The standard source for information on the history and criticism of poetry and poetic technique and theory
• International in scope, covering 106 national poetries
• Individual poets and poems are not included
• Concentrates on poetry
• Around for a number of years from prestigious university
• First published in 1965
• http://press.princeton.edu/titles/1749.html

Encyclopedia of the novel

[PN 41 E487 1998]

• Focuses on the development of the novel throughout the world
• More than 600 entries in 2 volumes
• Entries on novelists and their works, on types of novels, the technical and formal aspects of novels and discussion of the genre
• “First all encompassing of novel”
• International aspect
• General index
• Mentions/lists all novels mentioned
• 1st encyclopedia to focus on the development of the novel throughout the world
• http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Novel-Volumes-Paul-Schellinger/dp/1579580157/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355360318&sr=1-2

Cambridge guide to theatre

[PN 2035 C27 1995]

• International coverage of playwrights, important actors and directors, theaters, companies, movements, events, etc., past and present
• Version(s) of Oxford Companion(s) illustrated theatre guide
• http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Guide-Theatre-Martin-Banham/dp/0521434378/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355360428&sr=1-1

The Oxford companion to Canadian literature

[PR 9106 S7 1997]

• Representative title from Oxford Companion series
• Entries cover Canadian fiction, prose, poetry, and drama, prominent writers, literary magazines, and publishers
• American/English literature editions as well
• Bibliographies at end of articles
• Should be in academic, public and high school libraries
• Scholarly work
• Living and dead authors included
• http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-Canadian-Literature-Companions/dp/0195411676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355360704&sr=8-1

Masterplots

[PN 44 M33 1976]

• 2010 plot stories and essay reviews from the world’s fine literature, edited by Frank N. Magill
• Subtitled: “World’s fine literature”
• 12 vols. cover world literature of all genres from pre-Homer to 20th century
• The Masterplots series of publication provides essay-reviews of selected outstanding literary works in a variety of genres and subject areas. Entries for each work include a description of the type of work, author, date of publication, and list of characters. Essay-reviews consist of a summary of the plot and critical analysis of content and characters. All are arranged by title of work
• Upscale/elevated version of Cole’s Notes
• Lists title of works in contents
• To see an example of a Masterplots work, http://www.amazon.com/Masterplots-Stories-Critical-Evaluations-Literature/dp/0893560847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355360945&sr=1-1

Contemporary authors

[Z 1224 C62]

• A comprehensive source of biographical information on over 100,000 modern novelists, playwrights, poets, scriptwriters, non-fiction writers and journalists
• Published by Gale/Thomas
• Includes dead and alive authors of the 20th and 21st centuries
• Comes in a number of series (also revision series—updated entries)
• 3-5 volumes published every year
• As of late 2012, 320+ volumes and revision volumes published

Indexes

Indexes are important to the subject of language and literature.

 

American Humanities Index

Provides author and subject indexing for about 300 creative, critical and scholarly serials in the arts and humanities including philosophy, art and music. Collection of references specific to North America. May find actual short stories, noted if is. Provides abstracts and citations. Linked full text out of Academic Search Premier in Ebscohost.

 

Arts and Humanities Citation Index

A multidisciplinary index to literature of the arts and humanities analyzing periodical articles by authors (Source Index), cited authors (Citation Index) and keyword (Permuterm Index – no real subject headings) http://thomsonreuters.com/arts-humanities-citation-index/

• indexed specific keywords in title
• citation index cites references
• where did someone else cite the same article?
• will it lead to someone else’s work?
• will it be useful?

CBCA

Proquest brought out Canadian Business and Current Affairs. The following two sites contemplate one another.

• CBCA Current Events
• Current events is interpreted to include politics, business, the arts, sports and any other kind of news happening in Canada or abroad
• CBCA Reference
• Full-text content for over 170 journals and indexing to over 650 journals for current events, business, science, the arts, social issues and more
• MLA International Bibliography [Z 7006 M64]
• The premier database for literary criticism and analysis, produced by the Modern Language Association. It indexes books, periodical articles, essays, Festschriften and dissertations published throughout the world on topics relating to literature, linguistics, folklore, drama, etc. Celebrations of writing of someone’s career, in honour of, provides classified indexes, broad scope of modern ‘languages’ (e.g. computers), lists published medium http://www.mla.org/bibliography/

Indexes to literature in collections

• H. W. Wilson Indexes http://www.ebscohost.com/wilson
• Essay and Literature Index
• Short Story Index [Z 5917 S5C62]
• looking for a specific story indexed in cumulative volumes
• provides full text links to indexes, collections and anthologies
• Play Index [Z 5781 W48]
• single or collection
• description
• annotation
• suitable for children
• print back to 1900
• online back to 1983
• Less learned but valuable
• All separate indexes available online or in print
• Short Story File http://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/lapl-indexes/short-story-file-index
• An index to short stories in collections and anthologies in the Los Angeles Public Library. Only stories which are not listed individually in the Library’s online catalog are included.
• Inter-play http://library.pdx.edu/interplay/
• An ongoing index to plays published in anthologies, collections, and periodicals from the late nineteenth century to the present. Separately published lays are excluded.
• Especially valuable for locating recent plays not yet included in standard print sources.
• scope is limited to the holdings of the Portland State University Library, which is responsible for this database.
• Free
• Linked to many sites
• Drama theatre
• Playwrights Guild of Canada Virtual Library & Bookstore http://www.playwrightsguild.ca/plays
• Searchable database of Canadian plays
• Register or login as a visitor
• Matches titles by letter
• Titles are hyperlinked to basic information about play
• If not available for purchase, only ISBN, publisher and agent information provided
• Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry in Anthologies [PN 1022 G7 2002]
• Premier indexes
• Includes title, first line, last line, author, and subject
• Tendencies remembered
• Indexes for approximately 400 poetry anthologies
• New edition adds to previous editions. Last lines are more recent.
• Indexes up to 150 anthologies per edition
• http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/
• http://www.columbiagrangers.org/
• Available online by subscription
• PoemHunter http://www.poemhunter.com/
• A database of over 790,000 poems, modern and classic, that allows searching by poet name, poem title, and poem text. More than 80,000 poets are included and the site allows poets to submit poems as well.