Olin Reference Collection
Encyclopedias are great for:
- choosing a topic
- educating yourself quickl
- perspective on a topic
- variant spellings, terminology
- bibliography
Reference Sources on Literature
The Short Story: a Very Short Introduction by Publication Date: Oxford U. Press, 2022Considers afresh the form's ongoing innovations in plot construction, capacity for psychological insight, and ability to offer intensely concentrated perceptions.This book charts the rise of the short story from its original appearance in magazines and newspapers, largely in the United States and Great Britain.
Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-century American Short Story.Call Number: Print copy: Olin Reference PS374 S5 C57x 2000Publication Date: Columbia University Press, c2000.Emphasizing criticism as opposed to theory, essays cover a wide array of themes (e.g., African American short story -- Asian American short story -- Chicano-Latino short story -- Ecological short story -- Lesbian and gay short stories -- Native American short story -- American short stories of the Holocaust) and over 100 individual authors. Author essays are arranged alphabetically and include biographies, as well as critical overviews of their works. Indexed.
Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural TheoryCall Number: Print copy: Olin Reference PN 81 E435 2011Publication Date: Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011Arranged in three volumes covering Literary Theory from 1900 to 1966, Literary Theory from 1966 to the present, and Cultural Theory, this encyclopedia provides accessible entries on the important concepts, theorists and trends in post-1900 literary and cultural theory.
- Gale LiteratureA literature database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual
information on authors and their works (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism). Includes both textual and visual material from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, and Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Oxford Companion to African American LiteratureCall Number: Olin Library Reference PS153.N5 O98 1997Publication Date: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997Includes entries on 150 major works of African American literature, on literary characters, and on icons of black culture Here, too, are general articles on the traditional literary genres; on genres of special import in African American letters, such as autobiography, slave narratives, Sunday School literature, and oratory.Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
Call Number: Print: Olin Reference PS21 E537 2004 +Publication Date: Oxford UP, 20044 vols. Contains essays on US poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists. Figures such as Whitman, Melville, and Morrison are discussed in detail and examined in the context of their times, with an assessment of the writer's current reputation, a bibliography of major works, and a list of major critical and biographical works about the writer.
Oxford Encyclopedia of British LiteratureCall Number: Print copy: Olin Reference PR19 O95 2006Publication Date: Oxford UP, 2006"Covers the entire history of British literature from the seventh century to the present, focusing on the writers and the major texts of what are now the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. In five hundred substantial essays written by major scholars, the Encyclopedia includes biographies of nearly four hundred individual authors and a hundred topical essays with detailed analyses of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions whose impact upon the writing or the reading of literature was significant." Table of contents.
Need a Substantive Bibliography?
Nothing gets your research off to a good start like a substantive, scholarly bibliography. Oxford Bibliographies provide excellent, scholar-curated bibliographies of academic books and articles in a variety of subject areas.
Oxford Bibliographies: American Literature
Contains peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on American literature and the American literary tradition over the past 500 years. Includes perspectives on postmodern theory, debates about the canon, slave narratives, comic books, and other topics while inviting trans-disciplinary collaboration with fields as varied as history, cultural studies, politics, and women's studies. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.Oxford Bibliographies British and Irish literature
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on British and Irish literature. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.
Reference Sources for Race and Gender Studies
Race, Ethnicity & Gender Reference Sources
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: the Black Experience in the AmericasCall Number: Print copy: Olin Library Reference E185 .E54 2006Publication Date: 2006 (2nd ed.)6 vols. Culture broadly defined provides information on persons, events, and trends. Concludes with a collection of around 35 primary documents, section of "Statistics and Lists," and an overall index.
Encyclopedia of gender and societyCall Number: Olin Reference HQ1115 E54 2009+Publication Date: Sage, 20092 volumes; Focuses on significant gender scholarship within commonly recognized areas of social research.
Encyclopedia of Race and RacismCall Number: Print copy: Olin Library Reference E184.A1 E584 2013 (also online)Publication Date: 20133 vols. Examines the anthropological, sociological, historical, economic, and scientific theories of race and racism in the modern era. Delves into the historic origins of ideas of race and racism and explores their social and scientific consequences. Some of the nearly 400 articles address broad theoretical topics that have helped to shape modern ideas about race and racism; others address more specific subjects in the larger fields.
Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and SocietyPublication Date: 2008Covers important topics, events, and persons relevant to race and ethicity in society. Also addresses other issues of inequality that intersect with race and ethnicity, including ability status, age, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
Oxford African American Studies CenterScholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Features articles by top scholars in the field, images, primary sources with specially written commentaries, maps,charts and tables, and biographies.Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies
Call Number: Print copy: Olin Reference HQ1180 .W55 2016Publication Date: 2016"The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies provides an invaluable resource for students and scholars in the overlapping areas of gender, feminist, queer, masculinity, and sexuality studies; and acknowledges the growing interdisciplinary impact of these fields. "
