ENGL 205: World Literature I: General Information

Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism is also available full-text digitally in Literature Criticism Online via Gale Cengage Learning. 

In the Books & Media Tab:

• Conduct a subject search on the author of the work in question.  This will give you books about the author.
• Don't forget to use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT).  These can help you focus your results.
• If you are looking for literary criticism, try a subject search on the author's last name AND criticism.
• If your author is associated with a literary movement (e.g. Harlem Renaissance) do a subject search on the movement. 
• How do you do a subject search?
  • Go to the OneSearch and type in the subject you are looking for (e.g. Harlem Renaissnance), then hit return.
  • On the results screen, go next to the search bar and click on the advanced search link
  • On the Advanced Search screen you want to go to the drop down menu next to where it says Any field and select subject.
  • Under Material Type (to the right of the top search bar) from the drop down menu select Books/eBooks.
  • When you've selected all of these, click on the Search link.
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If you are having difficulty finding information, talk to your professor or one of the librarians at the Research Assistance desk.

• Remember to use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) in your search to make it more efficient.
• When looking for information on an author, check to see: if they have a pen name, if they wrote under an alias, or if their name translates multiple ways when converted into English.  If any of these apply, OR together all the possible names in your search. Ex. Elliot, George OR Evans, Mary Ann
• Take advantage of the Gale collections of criticism excerpts found in Literature Criticism Online.  These excerpts can give you a good idea about the content of a particular article.  If you decide that the article will be useful, the citation information is given so you can find the complete article in the library or request it through interlibrary loan. Show Me

The library subscribes to several collections that contain excerpts of literary criticism.  These sources are great to use to find out what people are saying about various works of literature.  Keep in mind that these are only excerpts of larger criticisms, and it may be useful to use the citation information given to find the complete criticism.