Welcome! This page highlights key resources for conducting effective research for Prof. Pam Cobrin's course, Art, Sex & American Culture
This guide highlights key resources for conducting effective information research, including the following:
If you need assistance identifying additional resources, search terms or strategies, please schedule a research consultation.
Image: A silver gelatin print depicting a black-and-white image of entertainer Gladys Bentley. Bentley is depicted facing the viewer in bust pose. She is wearing a black top hat, dark bow tie, a white dress shirt, and black tuxedo suit jacket. Her top hat is perched slightly towards her proper right shoulder. The edges of the image are faded into an oval-shaped, white background. The print does not have any inscriptions, front or back.
Depending on the topic of your project, some of these other library research guides may be helpful in your research. Hover your mouse over the "i" button to see a description of each book.
These sources contain scholarly background information. Many are available online, but some are only in print. When a book is available as an ebook, the call number section will say "ebook." Otherwise, the primary library name and call number will be linked.
The Roots of African American Drama by
The plays represent a variety of styles-allegory, naturalism, realism, melodrama, musical comedy, and opera.Their subjects include slavery, share-cropping, World War I, vaudeville, religion, and legend and mythology. Each selection begins with headnotes that place it in its historical and cultural context. Biographic information and a bibliography of other plays follow each script, providing readers with added sources for study.
Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies by 
A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama by
This Companion provides an original and authoritative survey of twentieth-century American drama studies. Balances consideration of canonical material with discussion of works by previously marginalized playwrights. Examines movements such as the Harlem Renaissance, lesbian and gay drama, and the solo performances of the 1980s and 1990s Situates American drama within larger discussions about American ideas and culture.
Early American Women Dramatists, 1775-1860 by
Noting that the variation between the playwrights can be as great as between men and women, and acknowledging that her subjects are limited to a narrow class and race population, Detsi-Diamanti the cultural and historical specificity of women playwrights of the period and the interrelationship between their dramatic efforts and the formation of an American national and literary identity. Her major themes are metaphors of freedom, industrial capitalism, and gender perspective and ideology.
Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers by
A catalog of works for approximately 200 writers, including playwrights, librettists, screenwriters, and radio scriptwriters. From the emergence of black playwrights in the time prior to the Civil War, to the early days of film and radio in this century, the efforts of early black writers are fully documented in this work.Three appendixes offer information on other playwrights and their works, additional librettists and descriptions of their shows, and a chronology of dramatic works by genre. A bibliography cites such information sources as reference books and critical studies, dissertations, play anthologies, and newspapers and periodicals frequently consulted, as well as significant libraries and repositories.
American Drama from the Colonial Period Through World War I by
The volume moves chronologically through the nation's dramatic history, balancing observations about formal, aesthetic, and theatrical concerns with an examination of the influence of broad cultural forces upon the direction of the drama.
The Facts on File Companion to American Drama by
An encyclopaedic guide to American dramatic literature, this volume contains approximately 650 entries covering playwrights of the pre-20th century up through contemporary ones, major plays, important theatre companies and movements and influential directors and critics.
