Library: English and Literature: English &amp; Literature

Quick Search

Welcome to the English & Literature LibGuide!

How to use this guide:

This guide provides resources that may be helpful to English & Literature classes.

To find our databases or to look for an article click START YOUR RESEARCH.
To go to the library homepage for more information and resources, click LIBRARY HOME.
To see special resources for English & Literature students, KEEP SCROLLING.
To find information on citations and plagiarism, click CITING & WRITING.

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Ultimate is the most valuable multidisciplinary full-text journal database in the world. All content from Academic Search Complete and Academic Search Premier is included in Academic Search Ultimate.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
The AAS collections document the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and early 20th century. The five series of this digital collection span thousands of American news and literary periodicals published between 1684 and 1912.
To search individual series and time periods, click the "Choose Databases" link above the AAS search box.
Biography (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Search for biographies based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, gender, or other keywords.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 5,000 freely-available scholarly eBooks in a wide range of subject disciplines.
Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
Access the full text of thousands of literary works as well as scholarly journal articles related to literature, literary criticisms and reviews, and author biographies. You can research authors and their works, literary movements and genres.
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text from over 1,200 scholarly journals plus magazines and ebooks related to the humanities.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

English videos in Films On Demand
Browse a list of hundreds of streaming videos related to English and literature.

Understanding Terms:

Peer-reviewed, Empirical, & Qualitative vs Quantitative

Need some help with these frequently-used terms?

Peer-reviewed

Peer-reviewed journals (often called "scholarly" or "academic" journals) contain original research articles.

These articles have been reviewed by other scholars in the field - the authors' academic peers. The reviewers work to ensure the integrity and quality of the research being reported upon.

Empirical

Empirical articles are based on experimentation or observation. In other words, they describe the results of research. Peer-reviewed articles usually describe empirical research.

Qualitative vs Quantitative Research

Peer-reviewed articles may describe either qualitative or quantitative research.

Qualitative research tries to understand who, what, how, when, and why. It explores the nature of something. Typical approaches include observation, interviews, and focus groups.

Quantitative research describes how much or how often. It relies on statistics and variables to prove or disprove something.

Here's a short video describing the difference.

The Compact Anthology of World Literature
A world literature class may be the first place that some students have encountered European works, let alone non-Western texts. The emphasis in this anthology, therefore, is on non-Western and European works, with only the British authors who were the most influential to European and non-Western authors (such as Shakespeare, whose works have influenced authors around the world to the present day). In a world literature class, there is no way that a student can be equally familiar with all of the societies, contexts, time periods, cultures, religions, and languages that they will encounter; even though the works presented here are translated, students will face issues such as unfamiliar names and parts of the story (such as puns) that may not translate well or at all. Since these stories are rooted in their cultures and time periods, it is necessary to know the basic context of each work to understand the expectations of the original audience.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
All of the works of William Shakespeare in the public domain through MIT.
Digital Schomburg
Features a variety of online resources, including a full-text collection of books by 19th Century African American female writers, as well as photo and audiovisual collections pertaining to African American history and the African diaspora.
The Literature Collection
The Literature Collection is a multilayered grouping of works in literature and the humanities. From medieval to modern, scholarly to satirical, there is something for everyone. Diversity rules: there are texts translated from Nordic languages, texts left untranslated from Spanish, poetry old and new, and a rich vein of information about the writer James Joyce.
The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature
The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature is a free anthology of American works spanning from Native writings and Christopher Columbus to Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 58,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.
World Literature I: Beginnings to 1650
This peer-reviewed World Literature I anthology includes introductory text and images before each series of readings. Sections of the text are divided by time period in three parts: the Ancient World, Middle Ages, and Renaissance, and then divided into chapters by location. Includes texts such as The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Aeneid, and Metamorphoses.
Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present
This open access textbook provides an introduction to American literature movements including Late Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, and contemporary literature.