LibGuides: English: Getting Started

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Research Guide for English

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Resources to find background information on your topic
Places to find books in print and online
Databases for locating scholarly and peer-reviewed journal articles
Collections containing primary sources
Resources for citing your sources and writing

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Image: John Williams, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 2008. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/5VCjWM.

Reference Sources

The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945 by Simon Gikandi; Evan Mwangi
ISBN: 9780231125208

Publication Date: 2007

Includes a chronology of key historical events and an overview of the emergence and transformation of literary culture in East Africa, as well as an alphabetical list of major writers and brief descriptions of their concerns and achievements. Separate entries within this list describe thematic concerns, such as colonialism, decolonization, the Black aesthetic, the growth of genres like autobiography and popular literature; important movements like cultural nationalism and feminism; and the impact of major forces such as AIDS/HIV, Christian missions, and urbanization.
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics by ed. Michael Kelly
Publication Date: 2014

Scholarly resource for the conceptual side of the arts, excellent for backgrounds & theory. A comprehensive survey of major concepts, thinkers, and debates about the meaning, uses, and value of all the arts—from painting and sculpture to literature, music, theater, dance, television, film, and popular culture.The second edition includes increased coverage of international aesthetics, modern aesthetics, new media like computer art, and areas like neuroaesthetics that were not thoroughly covered in the first edition.
The Encyclopedia of African-American Writing by Grey House Publishing Staff
ISBN: 9781682177181

Publication Date: 2018

Covers the role and influence of African American cultural leaders, from all walks of life, from the 18th century to the present. Considers what inspired various Black writers to create poems, plays, short stories, novels, essays, opinion pieces and numerous other works, and how those writings contributed to culture in America today.
Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory by Michael Ryan (General Editor); Gregory Castle (Volume Editor); Robert Eaglestone (Volume Editor); M. Keith Booker (Volume Editor)
Call Number: Butler Reference, Butler 310 & 301 (Non-Circulating) PN81 .E435 2011

ISBN: 9781405183123

Publication Date: 2011

Covers theory across three volumes: Literary theory 1900 to 1966,Literary Theory from 1966 to 2011, and Cultural Theory. Entries cover the important concepts, theorists and trends in post-1900 literary and cultural theory, with explanations of complex terms and important theoretical concepts, and summaries of the work and ideas of key figures.
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English by Eugene Benson (Editor); L. W. Conolly (Editor)
ISBN: 9780415278850

Publication Date: 2005

This Encyclopedia documents the history and development of postcolonial literature in English and includes original research relating to the literatures of over 50 countries and territories. In more than 1,600 entries, some of them biographical, conceptual, and thematic and written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars, the encyclopedia explores the effect of the colonial and postcolonial experience on literatures in English worldwide.

Dictionaries

Merriam-Webster Unabridged
Searchable database offers access to the full range of Merriam-Webster products in their unabridged form. Also includes access to a blog, word games, lists, word of the day, videos, quizzes, and trends.
Contents
Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary
Merriam-Webster's collegiate thesaurus
Merriam-Webster's concise encyclopedia
Merriam-Webster's medical dictionary
Merriam-Webster's Spanish-English dictionary
Merriam-Webster's French-English dictionary
Citations.

Oxford English dictionary online (OED)
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from Dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. The OED started life more than 150 years ago. Updates revise and extend the OED at regular intervals.

English

About this Guide

Research Guide for English Use the side navigation to find:

Reference Sources

Dictionaries

Research Guide for English

Use the side navigation to find: