Guides: English Literature Research Guide: Sources

COVID-19

Further to Quebec government and university directives, McGill campuses are currently closed. As a result, all library branches are closed until further notice. Library staff will continue to provide virtual reference during service hours. I will also be available via email and virtual consultation. For more information about the closure, please visit our COVID -19 | Library Closure & Service Disruptions FAQ.

Open Access Online Resources During COVID-19

Several publishers have expanded access to their book and journal collections during the pandemic.

Consult this link for those that would be relevant to English, Film and Cultural Studies:

https://www.mcgill.ca/library/covid-19-open-resources

Overview Sources

Oxford Bibliographies Online
Peer-reviewed annotated bibliographical essays containing commentary and qualitative lists of current books, articles, primary and multi-media sources covering all disciplines and specific works or topics within those disciplines.
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Cambridge Histories
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This collection of books 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 will provide brief or extended information 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
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Lengthy biographies on people from pre-colonial US to date, who have contributed to the American experience.Bibliographies often include links to supplementary information.
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Dictionary of Canadian Biography / Dictionnaire biographique du Canada
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub

Dictionary of Irish Biography
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Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (Gale)
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SPECIALIZED ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
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Oxford Handbooks Online
Oxford Handbooks provides access scholarly reviews covering various subject areas in the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Law.
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Oxford Reference
Text mining is permitted, but certain conditions apply. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Blackwell Reference Online (Database)
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Gale Virtual Reference Library
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Credo Reference
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The subscription to this resource was cancelled and access expired on September 1, 2020. A handful of ebook titles are still accessible on this platform from the Discovery catalogue.

Oxford English Dictionary
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* Core and Interdisciplinary Databases

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global
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dissertations/theses from 1861 to date
Literature Online
contains MLA Bibliography; audios/videos of poets reading their work(s); and over 350,000 full text poetry, drama, prose from 8th century to present.
MLA International Bibliography
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critical material (no book reviews) on the literature of most nations, with particular emphasis on literature published in the English language.
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature 1920- (Chadwyck-Healey)
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critical material on literature published in the English language; also covers linguistics, cultural and film studies; includes reviews
Literature Resource Center (Gale)
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click on "Advanced" to search by title of the work and check out the Topic Finder

Literature Criticism Online
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click on advanced > scroll to Product/Series and pull down menu to select genres/periods

Academic Search Complete (Ebsco)
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multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings
Expanded Academic ASAP (Gale)
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Humanities Index
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literary topics published 1962 - current
Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO)
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Periodicals Archive Online (ProQuest)
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coverage 1850-2005

Year's Work in English Studies
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Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
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American Literary Scholarship
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critical and evaluative annual review of major authors and movements in American literature

World Shakespeare Bibliography
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* books, articles, essays, reviews from 1960 to the present
Shakespeare Collection - Archives Unbound (Gale)
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* includes critical essays and articles; prompt books (17th -20th Cs); editions and adaptations

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

ITER: gateway to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
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North American Theatre Online
Library can facilitate negotiating text-mining rights for this database for McGill faculty and students wishing to acquire the rights with their own research funds. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Eighteenth Century Drama : Censorhip, Society and the Stage (Adam Matthew)
Drama Online
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Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals
index and full-text retrieval of material covering 1802-1900
C19, the Nineteenth Century Index
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Book and Journal Collections Full-text

Past Masters
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Oxford Scholarly Editions Online
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Early English Books Online (New ProQuest plaform)
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.
Library can facilitate negotiating text-mining rights for this database for McGill faculty and students wishing to acquire the rights with their own research funds. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale)
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Early European Books (New ProQuest platform)
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. - Library can facilitate negotiating text-mining rights for this database for McGill faculty and students wishing to acquire the rights with their own research funds. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub

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)
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The content of this database is available for text-mining through Gale Digital Scholar Lab

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

Streamed Video

AVON - Academic Video Online (ProQuest)
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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 Press)
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Opera in Video (Alexander Street Press)
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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 Press)
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Cinematic survey of the lives, as well as the cultural and political evolution ,of the LGBT community.
Library can facilitate negotiating text-mining rights for this database for McGill faculty and students wishing to acquire the rights with their own research funds. Please contact Digital Scholarship Hub
Films on Demand
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NFB (National Film Board)
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Kanopy
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Video streaming platform with documentary and art-film content aimed at universities and libraries.
Criterion On Demand
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Newspapers

Gale Newsvault (now on Gale Primary Sources cross-search platform)
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Includes 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers; 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Parts I and II; 19th Century U.S. Newspapers; 19th Century UK Periodicals: New Readerships; 19th Century UK Periodicals: Empire; British Newspapers, Part 3; Daily Mail Historical Archive; Economist Historical Archive; Financial Times Historical Archive; Illustrated London News Historical Archive; Liberty Magazine Historical Archive; Listener Historical Archive; Picture Post Historical Archive; Sunday Times Digital Archive; Times Digital Archive; and Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.
American Periodicals (ProQuest)
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Times Digital Archive
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive
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The content of this database is available for text-mining through Gale Digital Scholar Lab

Paper Copy Book Review Indexes

Locating Book Reviews

Reviews 18^th and 19^th Centuries.

Forster, Antonia. Index to book reviews in England, 1749-1774. Southern Illinois University Press, 1990. Z1035 A1 F67 1990 Reference Collection (paper copy)

Forster, Antonia. Index to book reviews in England, 1775-1800. British Library, 1997. Z1035 A1 F672 1997 Reference Collection (paper copy)

Combined retrospective index to book reviews in humanities journals, 1802-1974. Research Publications, 1982. 10 volumes Z1035 A1 C63 1982 Reference Collection (paper copy)

Combined retrospective index to book reviews in scholarly journals, 1886-1974. Carrollton Press, 1979. 15 volumes Z1035 A1 C64 1979 Reference Collection (paper copy)

Reviews 20^th Century

An Index to book reviews in the humanities, 1960-1990. 31 volumes Z1035 A1 I63 Reference Collection (paper copy)