Find Background and Context on Any Topic
- Oxford ReferenceA large collection of over 400 reference titles, including multi-volume subject encyclopedias in the humanities and short-entry dictionaries in science, technology, and medicine. These are one-time purchases that are updated by new editions. For deeper, more up-to-date coverage of science and technology topics, use AccessScience.
- Oxford Research Encyclopedias [OREs]Separate, serially updated encyclopedias. Cornell currently has full OREs for eleven subjects: African History, American History, Asian History, Classical Studies, Climate Science, Global Public Health, Latin American History, Linguistics, Politics, Psychology, and Religion.
A few free articles, a subset of the online articles in the other ORE titles, are also available. - Wiley/Blackwell EncyclopediasHere are our Blackwell and Wiley online encyclopedia titles on humanities and social sciences topics followed by the year of publication. An open year (2015- ) indicates an encyclopedia with a continuing subscription to new articles and article updates.
[Links to a page in a separate LibGuide.]
Find Background and Context for a Literary Topic
- Dictionary of Literary BiographyDictionary of Literary Biography
[Online access restricted to Cornell]
Volumes 1 - 387 are available in print in the Willis Room on the first floor of Uris Library: Uris Library Reference PS 129 .D55.
Biographical and critical essays in 394 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. - Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms4th 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. - Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature4 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. - Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature5 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.