ENGL 425: Contemporary British/Postcolonial Literature: General Information

Finding literary criticism on works written by recent authors can be difficult.  If the authors are non-American or non-European, it can get very difficult.  Here are some tips if you are having difficulty finding criticism.

1. Scholarly publishing takes time.  If a novel were written recently (within a few years), there won't be any scholarly criticism.  Try searching for book reviews.  Most book reviewers are fairly knowledgeable about literature and can have useful insights about a work.
2. Try searching only the author, or only the title.
3. Search international news sources  (NexisUni) for book reviews.
4. Don't be afraid to use books describing the author's writing style, even if the novel you are analyzing isn't mentioned.
5. If you are having difficulty finding criticism, come to the library and work with the librarians.

These short tutorials will review how to use various databases to find literary criticism.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact a librarian.