English 227- Modern World Literature- Chatterji
English 227
Modern World Literature
Manjari Chatterji
Sources for Biographical Information on Authors
| American Ethnic Writers | Ref. PS 153 .M56 A414 2000 |
| Each entry in this small, two-volume set includes biographical information and a short discussion of at least one of the author's works. | |
| Asian American Short Story Writers | Ref. PS 153 .A84 A828 2003 |
| Contains individual essays on 49 authors, some born in the U.S., some outside. Entries include "major works" and "critical reception." | |
| Dictionary of Russian Women Writers | Ref. PG 2997 .D53 1994 |
| Entries of 2-3 pages give brief biographical information, and description of the writer's major types of work and any themes that appear frequently. Short bibliographies are included. | |
| Modern Japanese Writers | Ref. PL 723 .M563 2001 |
| Lengthy articles include biographical details, the author's themes and ideas, and major works. | |
| Japanese Women Writers | Ref. PL 725 .J37 1994 |
| Offers general information on authors and their works. | |
| Japanese Writers Since World War II | Ref. PL 474.8 .J36 1997 |
| Essays of 3 to 10 pages on 28 writers of fiction discuss their careers and the major themes of their work. | |
| African Writers | Ref. PL 8010 .A453 1996 |
| Long articles include biographical information as well as discussion of major works and the author's general themes. | |
| Post-Colonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook | Ref. PL 8010 .P585 1998 |
| Entries of at least two pages include biographical information, "major works and themes," and critical reception. | |
| Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Writers | Ref. PR 9205 .A52 T88 1992 |
| Three volumes cover the careers of over 100 major authors who have published works in English. | |
| South African Writers | Ref. PR 9350.2 .S68 2000 |
| Essays on 27 major writers, each running at least ten pages, discuss each author's life and body of work. | |
| Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature | Ref. PQ 7081 .A1 E56 1997 |
| Offers entries on countries and authors, including authors' major works. | |
| Latin American Writers | Ref. PQ 7081 .A1 L37 1989 |
| This set provides detailed articles on major Latin American writers. | |
| Modern Latin-American Fiction Writers | Ref. PQ 7082 .N7 M55 1992 |
| Offers essays on thirty authors of the twentieth century. | |
| South Asian Novelists in English | Ref. PR 9496.2 .S6 S68 2003 |
| This book includes mainly authors who were born in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka. Most entries run about four pages, including brief biographies, analysis of works, and a summary of general critical reaction. | |
| Reference Books for Information on Literary Works | |
|---|---|
| Literature of Developing Nations for Students | Ref. PN 3326 .L58 2000 |
| Two volumes discuss novels or stories written by selected authors of various non-European nationalities, in essays of ten pages or longer. | |
| Reference Guide to Russian Literature | Ref. PG 2940 .R44 1998 |
| Entries of one or two pages list an author's major works and themes. | |
| Dictionary of Oriental Literatures | Ref. PJ 31 .D5 |
| Brief entries describe authors' major works. | |
|
World Literature and Its Times: Middle Eastern Literatures and Their Times |
Ref. PJ 307 .M67 2004 |
| This volume offers essays on 52 literary works, including the Talmud and the Torah, as well as some short stories, novels, and prose. Included is a chronology of major events in the Middle East, noting which works pertain to the events. Countries represented include Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Iran, and Iraq. | |
| World Literature and Its Times: African Literature and Its Times | Ref. PL 8010 .M65 2000 |
| Fifty literary works are discussed in essays of six pages or more. Included is a chronology of events in Africa, noting which literary works pertain to the events. | |
| Short Stories for Students | Ref. PN 3373 .S3845 |
| This set is available in print (11 volumes) or in electronic format (17 volumes). Each volume is arranged by the story titles. Long essays offer "analysis, context, and criticism on commonly studied short stories," including some classic and some recent stories. Full text of some critical essays is included. In print, there are indexes in each volume by author or title, theme, and author nationality. The library also has several print volumes of Poetry for Students, Drama for Students, and Novels for Students, arranged in the same fashion. | |
| Hispanic Literature Criticism | Ref. PQ 7081 .A1 H573 1994 |
| This set offers original essays of two pages or longer on each author's major works. | |
| World Literature and Its Times: Latin American Literature and Its Times | Ref. PQ 7081 .M625 1999 |
|
Essays discuss fifty novels or stories by major Latin American writers. Includes a chronology of events in Latin America, noting which literary works pertain to the events. |
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Databases for Author Biographies and Criticism
Gale Literature Criticism Online
This database is nearly a "one-stop" source for literary information, including biographical information on authors, as well as criticism of the author's general writing and specific works. The authors included here tend to be well-established writers, and may be novelists, short-story writers, dramatists, poets, or even non-fiction writers. Entries range from short paragraphs to perhaps twenty printed pages. Reading may be a bit awkward because some of the pages are basically scanned book pages.
Literary Reference Center
This database offers plot summaries and synopses of works of literature (from antiquity to current), author biographies and interviews, book reviews, and some critical essays from books and journals. It also contains the full text of thousands of poems, short stories, and classic works of literature.
Databases for Scholarly Journal Articles on Authors and their works
MLA Bibliography
This database is the major source of references to literary criticism, indexing articles from scholarly journals and books in the fields of language and literature. Most entries will be bibliographic only, lacking abstracts, and some are in non-English languages. The "Get Full Text" button will allow you to check for full text of these articles in other databases.
Humanities International Complete
This indexes a variety of journals in the humanities, including some literary journals. Most of the citations will have abstracts, and some will contain full text or full image of articles. Some may be in non-English languages. Use "Get Full Text" to check for additional full-text.
The product of a cooperative effort from several university presses, Project Muse contains full text articles from various journals in the humanities, including numerous literary journals. Its search engine is very basic; you may find it more useful to first locate citations in MLA Bibliography or another source, and then use "Get Full Text" to retrieve the article from Project Muse.
Academic Search Complete (from EBSCO)
Among many other subjects, this database includes indexing and abstracting for some major literary journals. Some articles are available in full text or full image. This database will also link out to other sources for full-text articles, while MLA Bibliography will link to full-text articles in this database and others.
Free Web Sites for information on Authors and Works
Contemporary Postcolonial and Post-Imperial Literature in English
Offers links to Web sites with information about Africa, India, Singapore, the Caribbean, and other countries and regions. Each area offers links to other sites about major authors, as well as themes, history, and other aspects of the area's literature or culture.
Here you can find links to biographical information and other writings (interviews, reviews, notes, etc.) for selected modern South Asian female writers.
This site offers links to full-text classic works of India, such as essays, letters, book chapters, and folktale collections. Under the "General Background" section, there are some links to free literary journals and other sites with literary resources.
Bibliography created by Cynthia Huebschen, Reference librarian. Updated November 2012.
