Literary Criticism for Students (and anyone else)

A guide to researching literary criticism online and at the library

Getting Started

Welcome to the Boston Public Library's guide to literary criticism resources available online and in the library. Whether you just need to define a term, get biographical information on your author, or obtain an overview essay on your topic, the resources on this page are a good place to start.

What is Literary Criticism?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, literary criticism is "The art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of a literary work; consideration or analysis of a text in relation to language, structure, biography, history, etc., or (in later use, freq. with modifying word) by a particular philosophical, political, or linguistic method; (also) an instance of this, esp. in a written form; a school or method of criticizing literature.

Research Strategies

Library research, reading, and note-taking are time consuming. When planning your time, make sure to take this into account and leave sufficient time for writing, reviewing, and proofreading your paper.
Start your research as early as possible. This will ensure you will have time to:
- Request material to come to a branch convenient to you (5-7 days)
- Request material through Interlibrary Loan (3-4 weeks)
- Plan a visit to the Research Library at Copley Square to use in-library-use-only material.
Use Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) to obtain an overview essay on your author, title, or topic and use that as the starting point for creating a tentative outline and thesis statement for your paper.
Note: When searching GVRL consider not limiting your search to the literature sources. An unrestricted search returns results from a wide variety of sources some of which could prove useful to your research.
Note: GVRL has a translate feature which should facilitate use of the database for those who do not speak English as a first language. Watch the tutorial.
Use the literary criticism databases on this page to explore your topic further. This will help to determine whether there is sufficient material to support your thesis or perhaps lead you in a different direction.
Note: Literature Criticism Online can be browsed by topic, which can be useful in suggesting new topics connected to your original search.
Note: Literature Resource Center also has a translate feature.
Use the bibliographies found in relevant articles to expand your range of sources.
When taking notes, make sure to put quotation marks around any words that are not your own and take down all the necessary publication information that you will need for your works-cited list, including page numbers and date of access if you are using a website.
Note: You do not need to document material that is common knowledge.

Online Encyclopedias

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is a giant online reference library that provides access to as many as 162 reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific titles all cross-referenced throughout the collection. Special features include a crossword solver and conversion calculators.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Gale Virtual Reference Library includes more than 90 encyclopedias, plus numerous specialized reference sources covering a diversity of subject including Arts, Biography, Business, Education, Environment, History, Law, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Nation & World, Religion, Science, and Social Science. The Literature collection includes the popular literary criticism sets Drama for Students, Novels for Students, Poetry for Students, Shakespeare for Students, Short Stories for Students, and more.
Includes more than 90 encyclopedias, plus numerous specialized reference sources covering a diversity of subjects including Arts, Biography, Business, Education, Environment, History, Law, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Nation & World, Religion, Science, and Social Science. Some "Junior" sources included as well.

Literary Criticism Databases

Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Literature Resource Center pulls together materials from many different print and online sources, including scholarly journals, literary reviews, reference books, authoritative websites, and more. The Research Guide walks you through the process of writing a research paper on a literature topic, from choosing a topic to gathering information, from formulating a thesis statement to writing, revising, and preparing a Works Cited page.
Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
An integrated search for Literature Criticism Online, Literature Resource Center, and Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography.
Gale Literature Criticism This link opens in a new window
Literature Criticism Online provides tens of thousands of hard-to-find essays on books and plays by the scholars of today and from the past. This resource includes full-text criticism from ten different sources: Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Shakespeare Criticism, Literature Criticism 1400-1800, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, Drama Criticism, Children's Literature Review

Author Biography

Gale In Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
Nearly 300,000 full-text biographies gathered from Gale's award-winning reference sources and 250 periodicals specifically chosen for their renowned biographical content in a broad range of subject areas.

Defining Terms and Concepts

A Glossary of Literary Terms
A listing of terms with explanations and examples.

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a recognized authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is a guide to the meaning, history and pronunciation of over half a million words.