Guides: English Literature Research Guide: Sources

Overview Sources

Oxford Bibliographies Online
A good place to begin your research with lists of books, essays, articles on your topic.
This source offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographical essays with commentary and qualitative lists of current books, articles, primary and multi-media sources covering all disciplines and specific works or topics within disciplines.
Cambridge Histories
Get a thorough survey of historical and literary periods/movements. This source covers historical eras and literary periods, genres and movements.. Each chapter, covering various aspects of the subject or topic, is written by an authority in the field. Examples: History of the Gothic, Science Fiction, Modernism, Post-modernism, LGBT literature, Graphic Novel.

Reference Books for Background Information

These reference books (biography, encyclopedias, companions, handbooks) will provide brief or extended essays on people, historical events/ periods, literary concepts/theories, and cultural/political ideas/ideologies.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

The entries for the biographical sources below are all commissioned and written by authorities on the subject.

American National Biography Online (Oxford University Press)
Pre-colonial era to current. Lengthy biographies on deceased US citizens and others who have shaped the history of the United States. Bibliographies often include links to supplementary information.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography / Dictionnaire biographique du Canada
1000AD to 1940. Detailed bio profiles with extensive bibliographies including info on location of the papers and manuscripts. .
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Antiquity (Roman Period) to current. Extensive bio profiles of those who shaped UK history. Bibliographies include manuscript locations.

Dictionary of Irish Biography
A project of the Royal Irish Academy. Detailed bios from early history of Ireland to current.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (Gale)
Extensive essays on the life and works of authors worldwide.

SPECIALIZED ENCYCLOPEDIAS, DICTIONARIES, HANDBOOKS and Style Manuals

Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Information on plays, playwrights, performers, directors, set designers
Literary Encyclopedia
The title says it all

Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
Interdisciplinary in scope containing essays, articles and images. covering Literature, Architecture, Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Theatre, Film, and Intellectual Currents.. Updated every 9 months.

The Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory & criticism
The focus is on contemporary critical and theoretical works while offering a comprehensive historical survey of ideas and individuals ranging from Plato and Aristotle to twentieth-century scholars.

Oxford Handbooks Online
Essays on authors, individual works, themes, movements, by scholars in the field
Oxford Reference
Brief info on all aspects of a subject from Art to Zoology. Also Bilingual Language Dictionaries and Quotations Dictionaries.
Blackwell Reference Online (Wiley Online Library)
Reference works including encyclopedias and companions incorporated into Wiley Online Library.

Oxford English Dictionary
The most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary in the English language. Gives definitions of words in historical context with earliest use/citations

Dictionary of Old English A to Le
Dictionary of Old English defines the vocabulary of the first six centuries (C.E. 600-1150) of the English language. It complements the Middle English Dictionary (1100-1500) and the Oxford English Dictionary. The three together offer a full description of the vocabulary of the English Language..
Middle English Compendium
A lexicon and usage for period 1175-1500 including a description and bibliography of the authors, works, manuscripts, and editions cited in the Dictionary

Chicago Manual of Style
OWL Purdue (Online Writing Lab)
Has online versions of latest editions of MLA, APA, Chicago manuals of style.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/

* Core and Interdisciplinary Databases

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global
dissertations/theses from 1861 to date
ProQuest Central
the key to accessing hundreds of databases by subject. Click on the "change databases" option and then "view by subject"
Literature Online (ProQuest)
search the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, for literary and film criticism, reviews,
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
critical material (no book reviews) on the literature of most nations, with particular emphasis on literature published in the English language.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings
Literature Resource Center (Gale)
Full-text database of literary criticism all time periods.
Humanities Index (ProQuest)
literary topics published 1962 - current
Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO)
Canadian Literary Centre (EBSCO)
Canadian Reference Centre (EBSCO)
Scopus (Elsevier)
Curated abstract and citation database, updated daily with enriched data and linked scholarly content for Health, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences. Worldwide peer-reviewed literature includes scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings.
Web of Science Core Collection (All Indexes)
Includes Citation Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Science (1990-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Social Science & Humanities (1990-present), Book Citation Index– Science (2005-present), Book Citation Index– Social Sciences & Humanities (2005-present), Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present). Chemical Indexes include: Current Chemical Reactions (1985-present, plus Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle structure data back to 1840), and Index Chemicus (1993-present).

Year's Work in English Studies
critical and evaluative annual review of the most interesting essays/articles on major authors and all
literary periods.
Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
critical and evaluative annual review of the most interesting essays/articles in Critical Theory: e.g. Digital Humanities; Visual Culture; Postcolonial Theory, etc.
American Literary Scholarship
critical and evaluative annual review of major authors and movements in American literature. Ceased publication 2020.

Core - Shakespeare

World Shakespeare Bibliography
* books, articles, essays, reviews from 1960 to the present
Shakespeare Collection (Archives Unbound)
* includes critical essays and articles; prompt books (17th -20th Cs); editions and adaptations
Oxford Scholarly Editions Online
Modern Critical Editions of Shakespeare's plays, searchable full-text

Performing Arts Periodicals Database
drama, theater, film, dance, music and performance; coverage: 1864 - current

Core- Medieval and Renaissance

International Medieval Bibliography (Brepols)
Covers the periods Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages (300-1500). Books, articles, essays, reviews in English, French ,German, Spanish and Italian published 1958 onward.
Bibliographie internationale de l'humanisme et de la Renaissance (Brepols)
Covers European history and culture of the 16th and 17th centuries. Material in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian published from 1965 onward.

ITER: gateway to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
This is not a full-text database, It is a bibliography of material on the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Citations must be searched in our catalogue to access needed articles, books, etc.

Core- Performing Arts

North American Theatre Online
contains details of New York stage productions 1798-1894; American Theater Company productions 1749-1986; manuscript brochures, playbills, programs, advertisements.
Eighteenth Century Drama : Censorship, Society and the Stage (Adam Matthew)
Drama Online (Bloomsbury)

Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals
index and full-text retrieval of material covering 1802-1900
C19, the Nineteenth Century Index

Eight Centuries (Paratext)
Eight Centuries is a database covering source material dating from 1106 until 1960, aggregating indexes, catalogs, collections, and other finding aids. 8C provides access to articles, newspapers, books, U.S. patents, government documents, and images, with links to full-text where available.

Book and Journal Collections Full-text

Past Masters
Oxford Scholarly Editions Online
Early English Books Online (ProQuest)
Contains page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere between 1473 and 1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale)
Early European Books (ProQuest)
Works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, fall within the scope of the project, as do all pre-1701 works in European languages printed elsewhere.

Includes content from the following libraries:
- The Royal Danish Library - Kongelige Bibliotek (Copenhagen, Denmark)
- The National Central Library of Florence - Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (Florence, Italy)
- The National Library of the Netherlands - Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague, The Netherlands)
- The Wellcome Library - The Wellcome Library (London, United Kingdom)
- The National Library of France - Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris, France)
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources)
The content of this database is available for text-mining through Gale Digital Scholar Lab

Early American imprints. Series 1, Evans (1639-1800) (Readex)

Manuscripts

Streamed Video

Academic Video Online (Alexander Street)
Video platform with more than 62,000 titles spanning a range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, and music.
Unlimited simultaneous users.
Theatre in Video (Alexander Street)
Music Online: Opera in Video (Alexander Street)
Provides access to more than 200 videos of canonical operas, from the Baroque era to the 21st century, in addition to interviews and documentaries.
LGBT Studies in Video (Alexander Street)
Cinematic survey of the lives, as well as the cultural and political evolution ,of the LGBT community.
Films on Demand
Access to documentaries, educational films and instructional videos.
Unlimited simultaneous users.
NFB (National Film Board of Canada)
Kanopy
Video streaming platform with documentary and art-film content aimed at universities and libraries.
Criterion On Demand
Not to be confused with "The Criterion Collection" of re-mastered films.
Docuseek Canadian Collection
Please note that McGill has access to the Docuseek Canadian Collection only. Docuseek streams independent, social-issue and environmental films to colleges and universities, with over 1400 films from distributors such as Bullfrog Films, Icarus Films, MediaStorm, and others.