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 & Literary Theory
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, 2006Covers 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.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of LiteraturePublication Date: Oxford UP, 2015-presentupdated regularly with individually commissioned articles, and in addition includes articles from related stand-alone printed volumes, such as the Oxford Encyclopedias of American Literature, Literary Theory, Latina and Latino Literature, and others.
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.
Dictionary of Literary SymbolsCall Number: Print copy: Olin Reference PN56.S9 F47 2017Publication Date: Cambridge University Press, 2017Explains and illustrates the literary symbols that we all frequently encounter and provides hundreds of cross-references and quotations. The dictionary concentrates on English literature, but its entries range widely from the Bible and classical authors to the twentieth century, taking in American and European literatures.
Reference Sources on Fiction
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 Twentieth-Century FictionPublication Date: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011"Covers British and Irish fiction, American fiction, and World fiction, including major writers and their works; the genres and sub-genres of fiction (including crime fiction, sci fi, chick lit, the noir novel, and the avant garde novel); and the major movements, debates, and rubrics within the field." [publisher]
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.
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.