Selected Reference Books:This is not an exhaustive list. Consult also the Dictionary of Literary Biography, or resources by country, and other reference books.
African Literature and Its Times. Vol. 2 of World Literature and Its Times. Joyce Moss and Lorraine Valestuk. Call number: Ref PL8010 M65 2000.
African Literature: Overview and Bibliography. Jonathon P. Smithe, ed. Call number: Ref PL8010 L5 A4155 2002
African Writers. C. Brian Cox, ed. Call number: Ref PL8010 A453 1997.
Companion to African Literatures. Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe, eds. Call number: Ref PR9340 C65 2000.
Encyclopedia of African Literature. Simon Gikandi, ed. Call number: Ref PL8010 E63 2003.
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Second Edition. Eugene Benson and L. W. Connolly, eds. Call number: Ref PR9080 A52 E53 2005.
South Asian Literature in English: An Encyclopedia. Jaina C. Sanga, ed. Call number: Ref PR9570 S642 S67 2004.
World Writers in English. Jay Parini, ed. Call number: Ref PR9080.5 W67 2004.
Finding Books which Include Criticism on an Author or Topic: Distance Education students may receive Joyner Library books through ourInterlibrary Servicesoffice.
Search the library catalog a couple of ways:
Subject Keyword: “Author’s Last Name, First Name and Criticism”
For example: “Frost, Robert and criticism”
General Keyword: criticism and other descriptor(s)
For example "criticism and realism and naturalism"
Scan the hyperlinked subject headings appearing in the individual book records. You can use these to narrow more precisely on your topic.
Some book records provide the names of essays within the book.
Finding Articles of Literary Criticism: Primary Indexes for finding articles/literary criticism:
MLA International Bibliography: Online access covers 1963-current. For 1921-1962, use the print indexes in the Reference Department. Integrated in Literature Online.
Many of our databases include the full text of articles. In some cases, though, the full text of an article may not be available online in the database you are using due to publishers' restrictions or the prohibitive cost of providing them online. Increasingly, when you search for articles in the library's databases you will see the button on your results list or on the screen showing the citation/abstract of the article.
Serial Solutions is a service offered by Joyner and Laupus Libraries that allows you, at the click of a button, to go from an article citation in one database to a full text copy of that article in another, or to see if a particular article or specific journal is available in full text electronic format. It also allows you to find out if that journal is available in print at either Joyner or Laupus.
What if the article I want is not available full-text online?
If the article is not available online, you can check the Joyner Library catalog or the Laupus Health Sciences catalog to see if it is held in printed form. The button does this for you automatically from within databases. If you live within Pitt County you would need to come to the library to make a copy of the article. If you are a distance-learning studentliving outside of Pitt County, you can have articles copied and sent to you, using Interlibrary Lending.
Citation Linker: If you already have a citation from someone else’s bibliography and want to find out if we have that article, key it into the Citation Linker. When you click the Find IT! Button at the bottom of the page, you will generate an menu of options that works like the one described above.
To Get Help:
Come to the Reference Desk or call us at (252) 328-6677
