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KEY DATABASES

  • The MLA International Bibliography - use this database for every project: it's a subject-specific index to worldwide scholarship on literature and media studies back to 1926. Also includes linguistics and folklore. Strongest for Europe, the Americas, and Anglophone scholarship.
  • Literature Online - use this database when you need background (reference) information, searchable literary works, or scholarship on British literature.
  • The Johns Hopkins Guide to Theory and Criticism - use this encyclopedia when you need to understand literary theories and schools of criticism.

SEARCH WORDS

Search terms that can help you improve your results in HOLLIS, Academic Search Premier, and other multidisciplinary resources:

  • Literature, “criticism and interpretation,” rhetoric
  • genre terms (novel, fiction, poetry, drama)
  • geographic terms (United States, American)
  • time period terms (19th, "to 1500")
  • Terms for region or language (Italian, Asian)

See Search Vocabulary for more details

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

Each page of this guide recommends my favorite tools and strategies:

Literature: A Guide for Graduate Students supplements this guide with:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Literary Research in Harvard Libraries was originally written by Sue Gilroy and Laura Farwell Blake, and remains deeply indebted to their work.

FURTHER GUIDANCE

Photo of Odile Harter (links to Odile's staff page)

Odile Harter

Research & Pedagogy Librarian

Email Odile

Hi! I'm Odile Harter, the library liaison to English and Comparative Literature. Email me with questions or to schedule a research appointment.