LibGuides: Literature and Literary Criticism: Resources: Home

Articles

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The MLA International Bibliography, produced by the Modern Language Association of America, consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore and includes coverage from the 1920's to the present. The MLA International Bibliography provides access to scholarly research in nearly 6,000 journals and series. It also covers relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats.

May also be useful:

Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Articles relating to literature, history, visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Articles and books from many fields, especially relevant to the humanities and social sciences.

Etymology: Dictionaries, Thesauri, etc.

Dictionary of American Regional English
Hear about the DARE in the player above.

Oxford English Dictionary Online This link opens in a new window
Definitions, pronunciations, and history of English language words.

For a unique experience, take a look at our print edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Located in our Reference Collection.
"The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is a groundbreaking analysis of the historical inventory of English, allowing users to find words connected in meaning throughout the history of the language...[This resource is ideal for] word-lovers of all types-linguists and language specialists, historians, literary commentators, among others-as well as being a fascinating resource for everyone with an interest in the English language and its historical development." ~from publisher website

Corpus of Contemporary American English
"The corpus contains more than 450 million words of text and is equally divided among spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic texts. It includes 20 million words each year from 1990-2012 and the corpus is also updated regularly (the most recent texts are from Summer 2012). Because of its design, it is perhaps the only corpus of English that is suitable for looking at current, ongoing changes in the language." ~ from the site

Videos

English Videos -- Film on Demand
A streaming video and multimedia database that includes thousands of videos in many subject areas, including English & Language Arts (use the dropdown menu for related categories of films), from high-quality sources such as Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Cambridge Educational, PBS, BBC, CBC, and many more. Available for classroom use or for streaming in online courses,

Digital Literature Collections & Archives

Many colleges or universities or organizations are home to special collections or archives of well-known writers and poets. These archives or special collections usually house a writer's important works or artifacts. These are resources that provide a deeper sense and understanding of a writer or poets creative process and life. And most of these works are digitized, making your research process a little more easier.

Rather than listing all special collections and archives, we suggest a web search for the author and include the term "archive." Be sure to choose the result that appears to originate from an education institution or organization. The three top results below are each valid resources (note the .edu, .gov domain name, and .org would be acceptable as well). We have provided links to some popular collections at the bottom of this page for your convenience.

Wright American Fiction
"This is a collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875. There are currently 2,887 volumes included (1,763 unedited, 1,124 fully edited and encoded) by 1,456 authors."
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"American fiction was still in its infancy in the years 1851–1875, but this period saw publication of works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Dean Howells, and Herman Melville. Many of these authors, especially Twain, Harte and Howells, had just begun their writing careers during this period and went on to write their best known work later. However, most of the authors contained in the bibliography are little known. This period - a momentous one in American history - provides the foundation for later American literature, and this digital collection of 2,887 titles allows insight into American literature, culture, and history otherwise unattainable.

The Wright American Fiction project is still heavily referenced and often sought for data mining and textual analysis. In continuing support of readers and researchers, the project was recently migrated to ensure ongoing, optimal access to the digital content."
Emily Dickinson Archive
Emily Dickinson Archive makes high-resolution images of Dickinson’s surviving manuscripts available in open access, and provides readers with a website through which they can view images of manuscripts held in multiple libraries and archives.
The Folger Shakespeare
Enjoy Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets, and poems for free from the Folger Shakespeare Library! While you’re here, you can also read more about Shakespeare’s language, life, and the world he knew. NEW: Listen to free audio recordings of seven complete plays through July 1, 2020.

Websites

Medievalists.net - Where the Middle Ages Begin
We aim to be the first place people go to when they want to learn about the Middle Ages. Our aim is to offer readers news, articles, videos and more about the medieval world and how that history is presented today.
Digital Humanities Now
Digital Humanities Now is an experimental, edited publication that highlights and distributes informally published digital humanities scholarship and resources from the open web. Since 2009, DHNow has been refining processes of aggregation, discovery, curation, and review to open and extend conversations about the digital humanities research and practice.

Style Manuals & Citation Guides

Excelsior College Online Writing Lab
Basics for MLA formatting.
BSU Writing Resource Center
Don’t know where to start on a paper? Need help with transitions, paragraph development, or citations? Come to the Writing Resource Center in room 326 at the A.C. Clark Library, or meet with a tutor online!
Style Manuals in the BSU Library Collection
Use our OneSearch catalog to see what style manuals we have in our print collection.