English and American Literature and Language: Resources for Graduate Students

This short list represents only a few of the many titles you might find useful. Harner's Literary Research Guide below will lead to others. In Loker Reading Room, other guides and bibliographies are available in the Literature section. (RR 3000 and following)

Literary research guide : an annotated listing of reference sources in English literary studies / James L. Harner.5th ed.New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2008.

E-book and print editions. Very helpful and well organized with critical annotations, a useful guide for any literary researcher.

Altick, Richard Daniel, 1915- The art of literary research / Richard D. Altick and John J. Fenstermaker. 4th ed. New York : Norton, c1993..

Harmon, William, 1938- A handbook to literature / William Harmon. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson/Prentice Hall, c2009.

Easily consulted and broad in scope, in dictionary form, with genres, periods, names, groups, movements, types and a chronology included.

The Cambridge guide to literature in English. 3rd ed. / edited by Dominic Head. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

American, Canadian, Irish, Australian, Indian, Caribbean, African writers and works are included, as are journals, terms, genres.

Guide to American literature and its backgrounds since 1890/ Howard  Mumford Jones and Richard M. Ludwig. 4th ed., rev. and enl.; Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1972.

Bibliography of American Literature (HOLLIS)

Bibliography of American Literature (e-resource)

The New Cambridge bibliography of English literature /edited by George Watson. Cambridge [Eng.] : University Press, 1969-1977. 5 v.

The Cambridge bibliography of English literature /edited by F.W. Bateson. New York : Macmillan ; Cambridge, Eng. : University Press, 1941-1957. 5 v.

The Edinburgh encyclopaedia of modern criticism and theory / edited by Julian Wolfreys. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2002.

New Princeton Guide to Poetry and Poetics A very useful source for theory and for literary studies, generally. It is in print and is included in Literature Online’s Reference section.

The Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory and criticism / edited by Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth.

Includes contributions from literary theorists, philosophers, political theorists, anthropologists, psychologists and psychoanalysts. Articles on postmodernism, postcolonial cultural studies and individual authors and theorists; international in scope. Useful entries on types of theory and criticism, such French (and others) theory and criticism, feminist theory and criticism, etc.

Literary theory and criticism : an Oxford guide /edited by Patricia Waugh. New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.
Widener WID-LC PN86 .L555 2006

Literary theory, an anthology / edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, Mass. ; Oxford : Blackwell, 1998.
Lamont PN45 .L512 1998
Widener WID-LC PN45 .L512 1998

Dictionary of literary terms and literary theory / J.A. Cuddon
Widener: RR 3005.31.9

A glossary of contemporary literary theory/ Jeremy Hawthorn.
Lamont PN44.5 .H37 2000x
Widener RR 3005.31.11