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HomeResearch Guide to American Literature
The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in American Literature. For further assistance, contact Elizabeth Peterson, Literature Librarian, at emp@uoregon.edu.
Note: items with the 
icon are available only to University of Oregon faculty, staff, and students, or to users working in the library.
Starting Your Research
These sources are good for quick identification and background on people, movements, terms, and literary works.
Encyclopedias and Handbooks
The Oxford Companion to American Literature
Includes biographical profiles of important American
authors (with information regarding their style, subjects, and major
works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who
have been important in the nation's social and cultural history. Also includes full summaries of important American novels,
stories, essays, poems, plays, biographies and
autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories. Also available in print: KNIGHT REFERENCE PS 21 .H3
Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
Provides information that encompasses the range and depth of
American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. Includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and
novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements,
periods, and themes.
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The Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Also available in print: KNIGHT REFERENCE PS 153 .N5 O96
- Native American Literatures, an Encyclopedia of Works, Characters, Authors, and Themes KNIGHT REFERENCE PS 153 .I52 W47
- Hispanic Literature of the United States: A Comprehensive Reference KNIGHT REFERENCE PS153.H56 K36 2003
- Asian American Literature, Reviews and Criticism KNIGHT REFERENCE PS 153 .A84 A82
- The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States KNIGHT REFERENCE PS 147 .O94
Terminology
- A Handbook to Literature KNIGHT REFERENCE PN 41 .H6
- Contains definitions and explanations of words and phrases pertaining to the study of English and American literature.
- Poetry Handbook KNIGHT REFERENCE PN 44.5 .D4
- A dictionary of terms used in the study of poetry.
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Oxford English Dictionary
- More than just a dictionary, the OED provides meanings, histories, and pronunciations for over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. Also available in print: KNIGHT REFERENCE PE 1625 .O87
- The Johns Hopkins Guide To Literary Theory And Criticism
- Provides encyclopedia-like entries of critical trends and theories. Also includes overviews of particular critics' publications and influence. Also available in print: KNIGHT REFERENCE PN 81 .J638
Finding Articles & Literary Criticism
To look for articles in journals, newspapers, or magazines, you will need to start with a database, otherwise known as an index. An index will allow you to look by subject, author, or keywords that describe your topic. Articles the UO does not own can be quickly obtained through Interlibrary Loan.
- MLA International Bibliography
- The essential index for critical materials about all literatures (except classical Greek and Roman), languages, folklore, and film. The database provides access to over 1.3 million entries gleaned from essay collections, dissertations, books, and over 6,000 journals. Covers 1926-present. (Does not include book reviews.) Guide to using the MLA International Bibliography.
- Contemporary Literary Criticism KNIGHT REFERENCE PN 771 .C59
- Each of the 221 volumes in this series profiles approximately 6-8 novelists, poets, playwrights and other creative and nonfiction writers by providing full-text or excerpted criticism taken from books, magazines, literary reviews, newspapers and scholarly journals.
- American Periodical Series
- Consists of digitized reproductions of more than 1,100 18th- and 19th-century newspapers and periodicals.
- Academic Search Premier
- A multidisciplinary database that indexes more than 8,000 publications, with full text for approximately 4,600. Covers 1965-present.
Finding Books
- UO Library Catalog
- Use the catalog to find books by keyword, title, or author, and to find journals and magazines owned by the UO Library. To find journal articles on your topic, use the databases listed in the section above. Once you have a citation, you can check the library catalog by doing a title search on the name of the journal to see if the library owns it.
- Summit Catalog
- Summit is a consortium of libraries that doubles our collection. You can borrow books not owned by the UO Library by selecting the Request Item option. Summit works only for books. If you want to request journal articles, you'll need to fill out an interlibrary loan form.
- WorldCat
- WorldCat provides access to library catalogs from around the world. The database contains bibliographic records describing books, journals, maps, musical scores, manuscripts, etc.
- Early English Books Online
- Contains digitized facsimiles of all printed materials published in Great Britain between 1473 and 1700, and materials published elsewhere in the world in English during the same period. Materials include books, tracts, pamphlets, advertisements, ballads, rhymes, and other ephemera.
- The Online Books Page
- Lists over 25,000 free books on the Internet.
Finding Stories, Poems and Essays
The catalog does not, generally speaking, contain records for individual stories or poems inside collections. This is not always true; in some cases (particularly for more recent works), a book's Table of Contents is included in its item record. This means that you can do a keyword search for a story or poem title and find the collection it is in.
- Short Story Index KNIGHT REFERENCE Z 5917 .S5 C62
- Lists stories in collections. Covers story collections from 1900-1990s.
- Columbia Granger's Indexes KNIGHT REFERENCE PN 1022
- Use this series of indexes to find out where a poem was published in a collection or anthology. See the online guide to using them for more information.
- Essay and General Literature Index
- Specializes in pointing to essays and book chapters in all kinds of anthologies. The online version begins with material from 1985; the print version is at KNIGHT REFERENCE AI 3 .E75
People & Organizations
If you are looking for biographical information about a major author, you can do a subject search in the library catalog, typing the author's last name first. (I.e., stafford, william.) Works by and about the author will be shelved together.
- Contemporary Authors
- A database that provides biographical details and criticism, mostly on major authors.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography KNIGHT REFERENCE (various locations)
- Presents substantive biographical and critical overviews of writers from all eras and all genres in over 260 volumes, each dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods. Use Literary Index to search the print volumes, which are scattered throughout the Knight Reference area.
Web Resources
- Voice of the Shuttle
- Collects some of the best online scholarly sources for the study of American literature. Including literature by and about:
Last Modified: 04/22/2008