LibGuides: English Literature: Home

Top Library Research Tools

Ready to dive into your research?

Below are links to the top reference tools, scholarly databases with journal articles, and other library resources. If you'd like to go deeper with your research, use the tabs along the side.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) This link opens in a new window
The definitive record of the English language, provides in-depth etymologies and usage of words over time.

Updated quarterly. Covers words from across the English-speaking world and offers etymological analysis, listings of variant spellings, and phonetic pronunciation. Corresponds to the print Oxford English Dictionary published in 1989 and the three Additions volumes published 1993-1997.
MLA International Bibliography
Find literary criticism, scholarly journal articles, book chapters, essays on major works of literature and authors. Search interface through EBSCO. Tutorial on how to use MLA.

Updated ten times per year. Indexes critical materials on literature, criticism, drama, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Provides access to citations from over 4,400 journals, series, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. Produced by the Modern Language Association.
For help searching the MLA International Bibliography, please see the MLA's video tutorials.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
The name stands for "journal storage" – a massive interdisciplinary archive of scholarly articles and books, going back to the 19th century.

Updated regularly. Offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. Includes archives of over 1,000 leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.
Members of the public can read online up to three articles for free every two weeks from a large subset of JSTOR journals via the Register & Read program. This program allows remote access. Non-UT students, faculty and staff who need more articles can contact library staff for other access options.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
A wonderful collection of reference articles (biographies, encyclopedias) on authors and literary movements, scholarly journals in literary studies, and original texts. Includes the long-standing ABELL index.

Updated regularly. Literature Online is a fully searchable library of over 350,000 full-text works of English and American literature. Includes several literary databases of poetry, plays and fiction as well as general reference works and links to other Internet sites. Coverage of literary criticism includes access to the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, 1920-present (from the Modern Humanities Research Association) and 383 Full-Text Journals (from Literature Online/ProQuest).
Project MUSE Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary collection of scholarly journal articles and ebooks, with strong collections in the humanities.

Journals: Updated as issues are published. Project MUSE is a leading provider of humanities and social science content for the scholarly community, with complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from leading university presses and scholarly societies.
Ebooks: Selected ebook titles from university presses and scholarly societies. All content from the print edition of the book is included in the digital edition. There are no DRM restrictions, and titles are accessible on some mobile devices. For further information, please consult the FAQ or tutorials and user guides
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For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide
Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism This link opens in a new window
Excellent scholarly synopses of key literary theories, criticism, theorists/critics, and philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle to the present.

Updated irregularly. Includes 241 alphabetically arranged entries on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also treats figures who did not explicitly deal with, but who still deeply affected, literature, literary theory, or literary criticism, as well as figures and kinds of inquiry from other fields that have been shaped by or have themselves shaped literary theory and criticism. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography, and there are extensive cross references both within and at the conclusion of each entry. Chronological range extends from Plato and Aristotle to the present, with wide geographical and cultural coverage.