Comparative Literature and Society: Reference & Background Info
General Reference
- Cambridge CompanionsAuthoritative guides, written by leading experts, offering surveys on major writers, artists, philosophers, topics, and periods. Excellent bibliographies and background information.
- Cambridge histories online This link opens in a new windowProvides full text online access to the complete 250-plus volumes of Camgbridge Histories reference series. Provides political, economic and social history, philosophy and literature of selected countries and subjects.
- Oxford bibliographies. This link opens in a new windowOffers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.
- Oxford handbooks online. This link opens in a new windowAuthoritative surveys of current research in thinking in a variety of fields and disciplines. Essays and bibliographies produced by leading scholars. Examples include Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics, Oxford Handbook of Soviet Underground Culture, Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema, etc.
- Gale virtual reference library This link opens in a new windowDatabase of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
Specialized Reference
- Dictionary of literary biography complete online This link opens in a new windowProvides biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
- Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory & criticism / edited by Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth. This link opens in a new windowA full-text searchable database of articles on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also treats related persons and fields that have been shaped by or have themselves shaped literary theory and criticism. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography.
- Motif-index of folk literature This link opens in a new windowA classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, mediaeval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends. This database is an electronic edition of the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, revised and enlarged by Stith Thompson (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955).
- Routledge Dictionaries and Critical CompanionsFocusing on theory, literary terms, movements, philosophies, etc. Examples include Dictionary of Critical Realism, Companion to Critical and Cultural Theory, Companion to Feminism and Postfeminism.