English 525: Contemporary Critical Theory
Introductory and Background Information
Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.
Ref. PN44.5 .M86 1997
Concise Glossary of Cultural Theory
Ref. HM101 .B775 1999
A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory
Ref. HM101 .D527 1997
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory : Approaches, Scholars, Terms.
Irene R. Makaryk, general editor and compiler.
Ref. PN81 .E63 1993
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism. 2nd ed.
Ref. PN81 .J554 2005
Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory
Ref. PN44.5 .H37 2000
Top
Biographical Information
Biography and Genealogy Master
Index.
"A comprehensive index to nearly 12 million biographical sketches in more than 2700 volumes and editions of current and retrospective reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world." Available electronically for Lawrence campus researchers.
Directory of American Scholars 9th ed.
A who's who of (mostly humanities) faculty.
Ref. LA2311 q.C32
Literature Resource Center.
Use the Author search or the Advanced search. Provides personal data, career highlights, lists of writings, and works in progress on authors. The individuals included range from newspaper and television reporters to editors and columnists to novelists, screenwriters, and literary theorists. In addition to biographical information, includes material from the Dictionary of Literary Biography series, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, and Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, and more.
Several of the guides and encyclopedias listed in the background section above also include biographical information about major theorists and critics.
Top
Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a Subject begins with search, for example, critical theory or deconstruction. LUCIA will suggest related terms which can also be searched. You may want to consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH is a red multi-volume set; it can be found on top of the Ready Reference shelves behind the reference desk on the first floor of the library.
To combine terms for a different kind of search, try Keyword Anywhere. LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. Try a search for a phrase, like cultural studies, by searching with quotation marks around the phrase, as in "cultural studies". You can search for individual terms connected by logical operators like AND or OR. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH. You can also search for multiple forms of words by using an asterisk; try a search like this one for literature and marxis*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with marxis; marxist, marxism, and so on; the connecting operator and then tells LUCIA to display all the records containing both the term literature and all the variations of the terms that start with marxis. You can target your search even more effectively by telling LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records; compare the Keyword Anywhere search with the Subject Keyword search.
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
Top
Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text. In addition to the titles listed here, see also the list of databases for Humanities available from the library. Some of our indexes include:
EBSCOhost.
Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. EBSCOhost provides a single Web source for multiple databases; you might want to select the Academic Search Elite. Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals.
Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life.
The essential indexes to the scholarly literature of history, in books and proceedings as well as journals. Include short summaries of the works indexed. The two indexes are not mutually
exclusive--some material is indexed in both, and both should be consulted when
you're searching on historical topics of international scope.
MLA International Bibliography. 1963-
A leading source for the field of literary studies. Wide ranging index to just about anything of a scholarly nature related to literature and language.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try the 
button to see if that particular article is available. If you don't find it, you can confirm that we don't own it by searching in LUCIA for the title of the journal or newspaper. You should also search BESS, an automated search of the library's full text databases, for electronic copies of articles.
Top
Finding out about Journals
You may need some basic information about a journal: who publishes it, how long has it been around, what's the target audience, etc. The library guide, Some Hints on Evaluation of Books and Articles, will give you more resources to help answer these questions; a couple good ones are listed here.
Magazines for Libraries
Lists selected magazines "most useful for the average elementary or secondary school, public, academic, or special library" and gives detailed information on each title, including indexing and audience.
Ref. Z6941 q.M23
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
"A bibliographic database providing detailed, comprehensive, and authoritative information on serials published throughout the world." Includes reviews for many of the titles listed, some from Magazines for Libraries.
Top
Web Resources
Internet Resources for English
Selected by the librarians here at Lawrence.
Literary Resources - Theory
Nice list of links maintained by Jack Lynch at Rutgers.
Voice of the Shuttle
One of the leading web pages for research in the humanities.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources, or the library's Web Wise Guide to Searching. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.Top
Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
The guide for any academic papers written in the literatures and languages.
RRef. LB2369 .G53 2003
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
Top
Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready Reference, shelved behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and M class scores; at end of classes in other collections
Top