Find Background and Context for Your Topic
Use the following reference sources to find background information, context, and definitions. For other helpful titles, ask us for suggestions.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online.
Several volumes added each year. Detroit: Gale/Cengage.
(print version: Uris Library Reference PS 129 .D55)
Biographical and critical essays in 350+ volumes on the lives, works, and careers of major writers from all eras and genres.
To identify volumes on short story authors, search dictionary [in title] AND short story [as a phrase] in our Library Catalog.
- Literature Resource Center.
A complete literature database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism). Draws from Gale Group's core literary databases including Contemporary authors, Dictionary of literary biography, and Contemporary literary criticism. Provides additional search capability for Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of literature and Gale literary index.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. 4th edition. Oxford University Press, 2015.
(print version: Olin Library Reference PN 41 .C67 2015)
Clear, concise definitions of the most troublesome literary terms, from abjection to zeugma, and increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction.
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature.
4 volumes in the print version. New York: Oxford, 2004.
(print version: Olin Library Reference PS 21 .E537 2004)
Covers the terrain of American literature in 350 essays from leading scholars, encompassing the range and depth of American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. For an example of a good background article, see the article "The Short Story in America" in this encyclopedia.
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature.
5 volumes in the print version. New York: Oxford, 2006.
(print version: Olin Library Reference PR 19 .O95 2006)
The counterpart to the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature for Britain. "Narrative" is a good example of an excellent overview article on a literary topic.
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Encyclopedia of the City byCall Number: Olin Library Reference HT108.5 .E63 2005 +ISBN: 0415252253Publication Date: 2005-07-12The Encyclopedia of the City focuses on the key topics encountered by undergraduates and scholars in urban studies and allied fields. Contributors include major theoreticians and practitioners, and on other individuals, groups, and organizations which study the city or practice in a field that directly or indirectly affects the city, the Encyclopedia necessarily adopts an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective. A solid but also provocative starting point for wider exploration of the city, this is a first-class work of reference that will be an essential resource for independent study as well as a useful aid in teaching.
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The Oxford encyclopedia of American urban history byISBN: 0190866373Publication Date: [New York, NY] : Oxford University Press, 2019.This work "synthesizes three generations of urban historical scholarship, providing a thematic and chronological overview of American urban history from the pre-Columbian era until the beginning decades of the twenty-first century. The 92 articles collected here describe and analyze the transformation of the United States from a simple agrarian and small-town society to a complex urban and suburban nation."
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The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies byISBN: 9781118568446Publication Date: 2019-04-24Provides comprehensive coverage of major topics in urban and regional studies. Comprised of over 450 entries on the most important topics and from a range of theoretical perspectives Features authoritative entries on topics ranging from gender and the city to biographical profiles of figures like Frank Lloyd Wright Takes a global perspective with entries providing coverage of Latin America and Africa, India and China, and, the US and Europe Includes biographies of central figures in urban and regional studies, such as Doreen Massey, Peter Hall, Neil Smith, and Henri Lefebvre The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies is an indispensable reference for students and researchers in urban and regional studies, urban sociology, urban geography, and urban anthropology.
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The Encyclopedia of New York City byISBN: 9780300114652Publication Date: 2010-12-01A newly updated, expanded edition of the most comprehensive one-volume reference work on New York City ever compiled. The revised edition includes 800 new entries that help complete the story of New York: from Air Train to E-ZPass, from September 11 to public order. The new material includes broader coverage of subject areas previously underserved as well as new maps and illustrations. Virtually all existing entries--spanning architecture, politics, business, sports, the arts, and more--have been updated to reflect the impact of the past two decades. The more than 5,000 alphabetical entries and 700 illustrations of the second edition of The Encyclopedia of New York Cityconvey the richness and diversity of its subject.