Research Guides: Liberal Arts & Sciences Research Guide: English

Step #1: Encylopedias

Getting started? Become an instant expert by using an academic encyclopedia. Unlike Wikipedia, these often can be cited in your research papers!

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism is an indispensable resource for scholars and students of literary theory and discourse. Compiled by 275 specialists from around the world, the Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements and is updated annually. It includes more than 300 alphabetically arranged entries and subentries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
Help Guide

Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada

Step #2: Library Books

That Time I Loved You: Linked Stories by Carrianne Leung (HarperCollins)
Call Number: PS8623 E75 T42
ISBN: 1443452866
Publication Date: 2018
The suburbs of the 1970s promised to be heaven on earth--new houses, new status, happiness guaranteed. But in a Scarborough subdivision populated by newcomers from all over the world, a series of sudden catastrophic events reveals that not everyone's dreams come true.
Double Oblivion of the Ourang-Outang by Hélène Cixous
Call Number: PQ2663 I8 D67
ISBN: 9780745653914
Publication Date: 2013
"In a densely woven narrative, Cixous's latest text focuses on the extraordinary voyage that is literary creation, and in doing so also explores the themes of memory, loss and subjectivity." -- from the publisher.
A Short History of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn; Edward James
Call Number: PN56 F2 M35
ISBN: 9781907471667
Publication Date: 2012
Revised and updated edition. Traces the the history of fantasy as a literary genre from its precursors in myth and early literature to its flourishing as a genre in the twentieth century and its bestselling status in the twenty-first century with authors such as Rowling and Pratchett.
Transnational Discourses on Class, Gender, and Cultural Identity by Irene Marques
Call Number: PN3448 P6 M26
ISBN: 9781557536051
Publication Date: 2012
Explores issues of class, feminism, and cultural identity through the works of four writers: Mia Coutu, Jose Saramago, Clarice Lispector, and J. M. Coetzee.
The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester
Call Number: PR4611 A73 W4
ISBN: 9780195396195
Publication Date: 2011
n the summer of 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church in Oxford, Charles Dodgson--better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll--dressed the six-year-old Alice Liddell in ragamuffin's clothes, and then snapped the camera's shutter. In The Alice Behind Wonderland, Simon Winchester uses the famous photograph of Alice as the launching pad for an appreciative energetic and penetrating look at the inspiration behind, and the making of, one of the greatest classics of children's literature.

Step #2a: Library Catalogue Search Tips

For best results

try using "subject keyword" search on broad genres (ex. fiction, literature, graphic novels)
remember that our language and literature collection in print is SMALL! so...always use ebrary ebooks for information on literary theory..

No Results?

use fewer search terms
broaden subject terms (ex. use "United Kingdom" instead of "England")

Looking for fiction?

it might be best to BROWSE the collection:
- Graphic Novels: PN 6725 - PN 6790
- World Literature: PQ 2000 - PR 9000
- Canadian Literature: PS 8000 - 8600

The library PRINT collection has only selected liberal arts and sciences titles so try Ebook Central for many more:

Ebook Central

Step #2b: Ebooks

Tras.Can.Lit: Resituating the Study of Canadian Literature by Smaro Kamboureli and Roy Miki
ISBN: 0889205132
Exit Capitalism : Literary Culture, Theory and Post-Secular Modernity by Simon During
ISBN: 0415246555
Poetry of Sappho by Jim Powell (trans.)
ISBN: 0195326725

Step #3: Journal Articles

Gale Literature
Gale Literature (formerly Artemis) provides access to a broad range of full-text literary research resources drawn from Literature Resource Center and other Gale databases. This resource offers extensive coverage of authors and their works, including topic overviews, biographies, and criticism sourced from thousands of journals, magazines and reference works.
Literature Resource Center
Full text articles, essays, criticism from international academic journals, magazines, reference books.

JSTOR Advanced Search
The JSTOR archive includes the backfile content of more than 2,500 research journals in a variety of disciplines. OCAD U Library currently subscribes to fourteen JSTOR archival collections: Arts & Sciences I – XIII and Life Sciences (includes Biological and Health & General Science) collections. As part of JSTOR’s agreement with publishers current issues are not typically available on the platform (often the most recent 2 – 5 years) but may be accessible through other library databases.
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Web Links

Internet Archive: Texts
Access over 2 million public domain e-books; includes 200 from the OCADU Library.

Public Culture
Award-winning open source academic journal from Duke Univ.
Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture
Open source academic journal affiliated with William Paterson Univ.
Other Voices: The eJournal of CulturalCriticism
Independent, award-winning, electronic journal of cultural criticism published at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.

Canadiana by CRKN
Selected full text primary documents from Canadian history.