Background Sources for Literature
Subject encyclopedias are great for:
- choosing a topic
- educating yourself quickly
- finding perspective on a topic
- discovering additional subject terminology
- subject-specific bibliographies
Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural TheoryPublication Date: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of LiteraturePublication Date: 2015-present
Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino LiteraturePublication Date: 2020
Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature 1900-2003Publication Date: 2004
Encyclopedia of Latin American LiteraturePublication Date: 1997
Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative TheoryPublication Date: 2007
Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0195156005Also print copy: Olin Library Reference (Non-Circulating) E 184 .S75 O97 2005 + (4 vols)
- Gale Literature Resource CenterA 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.
Finding Books in the Library Catalog
Search the Library Catalog to find books and ebooks in our collections. You may enter whatever words you think describe your topic, but using the Library of Congress subject headings can also be useful. For example:
Storytelling - subject heading browse
Latin American Fiction - subject heading browse
Alvarez, Julia - subject heading browse
Identity (Psychology) - subject heading browse
Databases for Literary Criticism in Periodicals and Books
- MLA International BibliographyThe premier bibliography covering international scholarship in languages, literatures, and film back to 1926. Includes books, articles in books, and journal articles. Does not index book reviews.
- ProQuest One LiteratureFormer name: Literature Online. Offers a full-text collection of poetry, drama, and prose with complementary reference sources as well as articles, monographs and dissertations.
- Gale LiteratureA periodical article and reference database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works.
- Humanities International IndexIndexes articles and books across the arts and humanities disciplines from a multitude of U.S. and international publications. Good source for book reviews of contemporary writers.
Databases for History and the Social Sciences
- Historical AbstractsCovers historical scholarship in journals published worldwide.
- Sociology Source UltimateProvides citations and direct links to the texts of journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings encompassing sub-disciplines and related areas of the social sciences,
Databases, Digital Collections, & Resources in Latin American Studies
- HLAS onlineThe online Handbook of Latin American Studies is a searchable, annotated bibliography of scholarly works on Latin American social sciences and humanities.
- Hapi OnlineHAPI Online contains authoritative, worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region and Hispanics in the United States. From analyses of current political, economic, and social issues to unique coverage of Latin American arts and letters, HAPI Online contains complete bibliographic citations to articles, book reviews, documents, original literary works and other materials from 1970 to the present.
- Chicano DatabaseProduced by the Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley, this bibliographic index covers a wide range of materials focused on the Mexican-American and Chicano experience, as well as the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants since 1992. Its content is designed to further research, teaching and scholarship for Chicano studies programs and extended ethnic studies curricula, giving researchers targeted access to materials that explore the broad dimensions of class, race and gender within the Chicano and Latino U.S. experience.
- Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera The Latin American Ephemera Collection contains thousands of digitized pamphlets, brochures, flyers, posters, placards and other printed items created since around the last quarter of the 20th century by a wide variety of social activists, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, political parties, public policy think tanks, and other types of organizations across Latin America, in order to publicize their views, positions, agendas, policies, events, and activities. The vast majority are rare, hard-to-find primary sources unavailable elsewhere.
- Visualizing Caribbean LiteratureInteractive database featuring over 3,000 literary works about the Caribbean experience or created by authors who identify as Caribbean people.
Digital Collections on Migration & Latinx Studies
- Archive of Immigrant Voices The Archive of Immigrant Voices was established to collect stories of the experience of migration. The purpose of the archive is to create, accumulate, and preserve a repository of memories that will not only reveal living history and features of the recent past, but will also document the fine lines of social change that might be otherwise ignored or lost to history
- California Cultures: Hispanic Americans The items in these exhibitions trace the history of Hispanic Americans in California from the Mission system and Californios into the 20th century: Mexican immigration into California, the farmworkers' labor struggles, and the Chicano Civil Rights movement and La Raza, which also resulted in an explosion of cultural art.
- Cartas a la Familia El proyecto Cartas a la Familia preserva, digitaliza, analiza y presenta al público una colección de la correspondencia y otros documentos personales de una familia mexicoamericana que emigró de Zacatecas, México, a los estados de Colorado y Nebraska, Estados Unidos, durante la primera mitad del siglo XX.
- Carteles de Cine Over 1300 posters from 1960s-2016 designed by Cuban artists for both Cuban and foreign films, film festivals, and film related special events. Posters were commissioned by Cinemateca de Cuba, part of Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos.
- Chicana por mi Raza Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective is a group of researchers, educators, students, archivists and technologists dedicated to preserving imperiled Chicanx and Latinx histories of the long Civil Rights Era. Started by Professor Maria Cotera and filmmaker Linda Garcia Merchant in 2009, CPMR has traveled to over one dozen states to collect hundreds of hours of oral histories with notable Chicanas, Latinas, and allies. The project has also scanned personal archives for preservation and access. Using largely volunteer and student labor, CPMR offers a model for grassroots digital history that encourages further research into understudied aspects of the American experience. The overarching objective of the project is to provide broad‐based public access to oral histories, material culture, correspondence, and rare out‐of‐print publications for use in both scholarly research and the classroom. Chicana por mi Raza began collecting oral histories in 2009. Since then, the CPMR team has interviewed more than 80 women. From these interviews we've collected and processed approximately 10,000 archival items, with 3000 or so awaiting digitizing, description and uploading. Most of the oral histories consist of several hours of film footage, and some women have been interviewed more than once. Our online digital repository currently contains approximately 7,000 available digital records and over 500 interview clips.
- Dartmouth Latino Oral History Project The Dartmouth Latino Oral History Project (DLOHP) is the outcome of oral histories produced for an undergraduate Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Course entitled “Crossing Over: Latino Migrant Roots and Transitions” taught by Prof. Lourdes Gutiérrez Nájera (Anthropology; Latino Studies). This course focuses on the experiences of Latino—Mexican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Guatemalan—transnational migrants living in the U.S. The literature draws from anthropology and its neighboring disciplines in an attempt to understand the social, political, and economic processes that shape the varied experiences of Latino migrants
- Podcast: Dialogues in Afrolatinidad Dialogues in Afrolatinidad explores history, culture, and contemporary issues in Afro-Latin America and U.S.-Afro-Latinx communities. The podcast features interviews with scholars, writers, educators, artists, and community leaders who share their passion for Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies, the significance of their intellectual, creative, or community engagement, and resources for learning more.
- L.A. Xicano Oral Histories In this set of interviews, artists talk about childhood, education, and career and inspirations for their art. Their recollections offer insight into not only the work of the individual artists but also how these artists were interconnected and were affected by cultural and political developments, particularly the Chicano Movement.
- New Roots: Voices from Carolina del Norte This is a bilingual oral history archive that explores Latin American and Caribbean heritage in the U.S. South. Listen to the first-hand perspectives of North Carolinians who share experiences of migration, settlement, demographic change, and leadership.
- Onda Latina: The Mexican American Experience The Onda Latina Collection consists of 226 digitally preserved audio programs including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns from the radio series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.
- Cultura Chicana El Portal de cultura chicana ofrecer obras de creación e investigación sobre dicha literatura. Nuestra intención es presentar al público la producción literaria, cultural y crítica de las chicanas y los chicanos, oriundos y residentes del Suroeste en Estados Unidos de América.
- StoryCorps: Historias In 2009, the Cuban Heritage Collection became a community partner of the StoryCorp Historias project, “an initiative to record the diverse stories and life experiences of Latinos in the United States.” As part of this partnership, the Cuban Heritage Collection received all oral histories recorded in Miami and all interviews in which participants self-identified as Cuban or of Cuban descent, regardless of interview location.
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Library Tutorials -- Teach Yourself!
The tutorials linked below will give you the basic knowledge you'll need to effectively navigate the Cornell Library web site and the skills that will enable you to find the information you need for your assignments:
How to Find a Book in the Library
Using Wikipedia to Start Your Research -- But Not End There!
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Some Helpful Research Tools
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How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
MLA Citation Style (Purdue OWL)
MLA Handbook (9th edition)
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