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Women's Literature

Books - to find broad information on a topic, or the history of a given topic, try the book collection. This information may not the most up to date, but should give you a good sense of the "big picture." To look up books on a given topic, go to the library catalog:

http://cmars.cwmars.org/search~S38/

Once you're in the library catalog depending on your topic, try keyword searches like:

  • women authors
  • british women authors
  • bronte and jane eyre
  • gilman and criticism

If you find a book that focuses on the topic in question, be sure to try a subject search by clicking subject headings.

There are several useful reference books which you might consult in your work:

  • Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States - Ref PS147.O94 1995
  • American Writers - Ref PS129.A55
  • African American Writers - Ref PS153.N5A344 2001
  • British Women Fiction Writers of the 19th Century - PR868.W6B75 1998

Remember that we have access to many more books than are located at MWCC library. To see what books other libraries own on your subject search "C/WMARS - All Libraries" or pick a specific library to search, within our system

Also, if you do locate a book which contains good information on your topic, see if there are bibliographies in the book, which list other sources.

Periodical Indexes/Databases - to find additional and often more current information on a topic, try journal or magazine articles. In order to locate them, you must use an index. Just like in the back of a book there is an index which tells you what page to look at in the book, there are indexes to journals and newspapers which tell you which issue and page to look at in the journal. These indexes used to be just available in print but are now available online as well. Some online indexes which you should use in your work would be:

  • Literature Online (LION) - texts of over 350,000 works of literature together with criticism and reference resources
  • American Humanities Index - a collection of bibliographic references to literary, scholarly and creative journals
  • Biography Resource Center - A comprehensive database of biographical information on more than 275,000 people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas
  • Academic Search Premier - large general database
  • Expanded Academic ASAP - another large, general database

The really exciting thing about these online databases is that about 50 percent of the time, the articles which are indexed online, are available online, full-text.

These are all available through the library's databases page:

http://www.mwcc.mass.edu/library/login

Just select the appropriate access - either on-campus (from anywhere at MWCC) or off-campus (if you're working from home), then find these online indexes in the alphabetical database listing.

Once in these databases, try similar keyword searches such as the ones listed above for the library catalog. Also remember to try to be more specific when searching in periodical databases - you're searching through millions of articles!

  • edward rochester and bronte
  • masculinity and bronte
  • nature and bronte

Remember to try searching using subject headings if you find an article on your topic.

Websites - To supplement your investigation, but not to substitute for information you find in journals and books.

Some possible sites:

Bibliomania
http://www.bibliomania.com/main.html

Included here are fully searchable full-text editions of over 2,000 classic works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and a few reference titles and contemporary articles. The complete plays of Shakespeare are featured, as well as major titles from Austen, Dickens, Twain, Freud, Benjamin Franklin, Vatsyayana, and many others. It is possible to search the full texts of the entire collection, or limited parts of it, in one search using keyword or phrase.

FreeBooknotes.com
http://www.freebooknotes.com

A comprehensive guide to free book summaries, literature notes, and study guides (like "cliff notes") for over 250 books.

Online Literary Criticism Collection
http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit

1000+ critical and biographical web sites dealing with American and British literature.

 

This page is maintained by the MWCC Library.
This page last updated 2/4/04 .