Research Guides: ENGL 399: Senior Conference (HC) : Background

Using Background Information

Subject encyclopedias and companions and handbooks provide overviews of authors, movements and genres. They are a quick way to find out the basic interpretations and cultural background. When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibliography for further reading at the end of the article. It will provide a selective list of books, articles, and, sometimes, primary sources.

General Sources on Literature

Contemporary Literary Criticism
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Detailed profiles of living novelists, playwrights, and other writers, as well as those who died after 1959. Includes excerpts of published criticism of their works.
Literature Resource Center
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Provides biographies, bibliographies and scholarly articles on novelists, poets, essayists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of those authors more frequently studied in colleges and universities.

Biographical Information

American National Biography
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Offers portraits of more than 18,000 men and women, from all eras and walks of life, whose lives have shaped the nation. No living person is included.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (DLB)
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Covers authors from all eras, genres and geographic areas.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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Contains biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond,from the earliest times to the year 2001. Articles focus on noteworthy people from all walks of life. No living person is included. Coverage varies.

Literary Theory

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
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Articles on critical theory as well as individual theorists. Each entry features both primary and secondary bibliographic entries.

Literary Theory: A very Short Introduction
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The author outlines the ideas behind various critical approaches including postcolonial theory, ecocriticism and trauma theory.

New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
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Covers both the history of poetry as well as aspects of technique and genre.

History and Culture

Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History
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Covers LGBTQ topics in Africa, Asia, and all other areas taking an interdisciplinary approach, using film, literature, human rights, the arts, language and history as points of entry into the content.

Oxford African American Studies Center
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Comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture, coupled with precise search and browse capabilities. Features articles by top scholars in the field, images, primary sources with specially written commentaries, maps, charts and tables, and biographies.

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History
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Offers more than 450 articles concerning social structures that shaped American life, including race, gender, ethnicity, and class. Family, work, leisure, social movements, and patterns of mobility and settlements are also featured. Sensitive to transnational developments, the volume draws extensively on new literature on slavery, health and disease, sexuality, women's activism, and technology's impact on everyday life.

Background Resources in Related Subject Areas

Encyclopedia of Religion
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The second edition of a resource that is considered a standard reference in the field. Presents a cross-cultural approach that emphasizes religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture. The original 2,750 entries have been retained, many heavily updated, and approximately 600 entirely new articles have been added by an international team of scholars and contributors.

Oxford Art Online
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Oxford Art Online is an art reference library that searches Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, and The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. This resource contains images, biographies, subject entries, and thematic timelines (antiquity to present).

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Online version of the 10-volume Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy. Covers philosophical themes, philosophies, historical periods, and religions. Subjects covered include: Anglo-American, ethical and political, cross-cultural,interdisciplinary, continental and contemporary philosophy.