LibGuides: ENGL 3204: World Literature Revisited I: Finding Texts to Put on Your World Literature Syllabus

Finding Search Terms

Here are some tips for finding search terms. It's a great idea to start thinking about these before you search in catalogs, databases, and other search tools.

Write down keywords and key phrases that relate to your topic(s) and can lead you to the texts you are seeking. Think of alternative terms. If you want to visualize them spatially, start a concept map, or mind map. Some types of terms you might want to list for yourself:
- Regions/parts of the world from where you are looking for texts
- Source languages
- Themes that interest you
- Literary forms or genres that interest you
- When known, names of authors and/or specific texts
Research backgrounds and contexts, if you would like (see Getting Started for some reference sources that can help with this). Reference sources can give you additional ideas for key words and phrases to try in your searches.
Make room for alternate spellings of terms, or names. especially ones translated/transliterated from languages other than English. (Example: Sunjata or Sundiata).
Use the words and phrases on your concept map in your searches across catalogs and databases. Try out different combinations!

Keyword Concept Map
A diagram you can use to create a concept map, which you can use to develop search terms (via Claremont College Libraries)

Searching in CLIO

To search for books, as well as journals and other periodicals (by title), or films, or sound recordings, select Catalog in the drop down menu above.

Enter your search terms. Some tips:

Use AND between terms to get more specific results, which contain ALL the terms.
Use OR between terms to get broader results, containing ANY of the terms.
If you want to search words together as a phrase, enclose them in quotes (example: "Popol Vuh")
Use * (the asterisk) as a symbol for missing letters when you want to search for a word with variant spellings, or for multiple words with the same stem. (example: feminis* searches feminist, feminism)

NARROWING DOWN YOUR SEARCH RESULTS

After you have entered a search in the catalog, you can use the boxes on the left side of the screen to narrow down your results. Some options:

Format: Select "online" to narrow down to sources you can access online. (note: there are some sources that you can also read digitally scanned versions of using HathiTrust; these will not appear as "online" sources, so you can also look out for links below certain print sources that will take you to a database where you can read a scanned copy).
Publication Date: For the purposes of your historical scope, you might limit this to before 1400 (or other relevant date).
Language: You might use this to limit to English for works translated into English, or another language of your choice.
Subject (Genre): You might use this to limit to work of a specific literary genre.

You can also use the "Sort By..." drop down feature at the top of the search results list to change the order of your search results (by date, or alphabetically by title, for instance).

World Literature Texts: Databases and Anthologies

These databases and anthologies contain the FULL TEXT of a range of literary sources from around the world. Most are grouped around a specific region or historical tradition, and they generally allow you to search or browse for texts.

Alexander Street Literature
is a comprehensive, cross-searchable package of collections covering "literatures of place, race, and gender." It includes poetry, short fiction, and novels, along with full-text plays and film scripts, from Black, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Latin American, and American authors.

Classical Arabic Literature by G.J.H.Van Gelder
ISBN: 9780814771204
Publication Date: 2012
includes an assortment of classical Arabic poems and literary prose, from pre-Islamic times until the 18th century, with short introductions ,informative endnotes and a bibliography.

Columbia Granger's World of Poetry
ndex to poetry, including full-text of 13,000 poems and 250,000 poem citations. This online version includes the contents of the following works: Columbia Granger's index to poetry in anthologies (eds. 8-11), Columbia Granger's index to poetry in collected and selected works, Columbia Granger's guide to poetry anthologies (2nd ed.), Columbia Granger's dictionary of poetry quotations, Classic hundred poems, as well as new content not published previously in print.

Digital Scriptorium
The Digital Scriptorium is an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts, intended to unite scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.

Digital South Asia Library
The Digital South Asia Library, a project of the Center for Research Libraries, is a global collaborative effort to make important and rare South Asian resources available to the international community. Includes: reference resources, bibliographies and union lists, indexes, books and journals, statistics, image collections, maps and catalogs of maps.
HathiTrust Digital Library
As a digital repository for the nation's great research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the immense collections of partner institutions. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.
Loeb Classical Library
Full texts and translations of over 520 volumes of Classical Greek and Latin Literature. Viewable in original language, English translations, or with both on facing pages.

The Poetry of Arab Women from the Pre-Islamic Age to Andalusia by Wessam Elmeligi
ISBN: 9780429451317
Publication Date: 2019-06-04
This is a compilation of poetry written by Arabic women poets from pre-Islamic times to the end of the Abbasid caliphate and Andalusia, and offers translations of over 200 poets together with literary commentary on the poets and their poetry. This critical anthology presents the poems of more than 200 Arabic women poets active from the 600s through the 1400s CE. It marks the first appearance in English translation for many of these poems. The volume includes biographical information about the poets, as well as an analysis of the development of women's poetry in classical Arabic literature that places the women and the poems within their cultural context. The book fills a noticeable void in modern English-language scholarship on Arabic women, and has important implications for the fields of world and Arabic literature as well as gender and women's studies. The book will be a fascinating and vital text for students and researchers in the fields of Gender Studies and Middle Eastern studies, as well as scholars and students of translation studies, comparative literature, literary theory, gender studies, Arabic literature, and culture and classics.
Traditional Japanese literature: an anthology, beginnings to 1600 by edited by Haruo Shirane
ISBN: 9780231504539
Publication Date: 2012
contains key examples of both high and low styles of poetry, drama, prose fiction, and essays. For this abridged edition, Shirane retains substantial excerpts from such masterworks as The Tale of Genji, The Tales of the Heike, The Pillow Book, the Man'yoshu, and the Kokinshu. He preserves his comprehensive survey of secular and religious anecdotes (setsuwa) as well as classical poems with extensive commentary.

ENGL 3204: World Literature Revisited I

Finding Search Terms

Searching in CLIO

CLIO Quicksearch

World Literature Texts: Databases and Anthologies