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Just for You
Find Works of American Literature
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 180 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources.
LitFinder (Gale Literature) This link opens in a new window
LitFinder contains a wealth of literary works including over 150,000 full-text poems and 800,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays. For students or patrons seeking a deeper view into literature, LitFinder also includes secondary materials like biographies, images, and more!
Criticism and Interpretive Articles
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Provides a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations . The indexed materials coverage is international. Subjects consist of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Listings on rhetoric and composition and the history, theory and practice of teaching language and literature are also included.
Funded by statewide allocation.
Essay & General Literature Index This link opens in a new window
Cites essays and articles contained in collections of essays and miscellaneous works published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. This resource focuses on the humanities and social sciences, with subjects ranging from economics, political science, and history to criticism of literary works, drama, and film.
Funded by statewide allocation.
Search The Library for Books and Titles
- Literature (General): PN1 - 6790
- Black Literature (General): PN841
- American Literature: PS1 - 3626
- Collections of American Literature: PS501 - 639
- Individual Authors: PS700-3576
- Poetry: PN1010 - 1525, PN6099 - 6110 (Poetry Collections)
- Drama: PN1600 - 1693
Encyclopedia of American Literature by Carol Berkin; Lisa Olson Paddock; Carl E. Rollyson; Facts on File, Inc. Staff (Contribution by)
This reference work spans the scope of American literature, from the colonial period through to the 20th century. Broken down into three chronological volumes, and then arranged alphabetically within each volume, each reference includes entries reflecting writers, works, literary movements, characters and influential historical events that high-school students or undergraduates are likely to encounter in course reading lists, classes or textbooks. Regionally and culturally inclusive, entries on writers describe key life events, thumbnail descriptions of their works, and their significance in the literary period. Also included are bibliographies listing key critical and biographical resources for further reading, an index for each volume, and a general list of entries for the entire set. A chronology in each volume puts the literature of the period in context.
Call Number: PS21 .F33 2002 (Reference, Jupiter Campus Library)
ISBN: 0816041210
Publication Date: 2002-05-01
The HarperCollins Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature by George Perkins; Barbara Perkins; Phillip Leininger
A classic reference work originally published forty years ago, The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature is an irresistable guide to nearly everything there is to know about American literature. The thousands of entries, contributed by more than 130 scholars, include biographies of novelists, playwrights, poets and critics, summaries of books and plays, descriptions of characters, definitions of literary terms and movements, and much more. Featuring hundreds of longer essays on broad topics of interest such as Native American Prose and Poetry, Jewish American Literature, Humor in the United States, and Motion Pictures, the REAL is an authoritative and engrossing-- and often quirky -- guide to American life and the canon in all its variety and vigor. This new edition, the first since 1991, has added 300 new writers who have come to prominence in the last decade, from Amy Tan and E. Annie Proulx to Oscar Hijuelos, Paul Auster, David Guterson, and many more. Over 1300 existing entries have been revised and updated in light of recent scholarship.
Call Number: PN41 .B4 2002 (Boca Raton and Jupiter Campus Libraries)
ISBN: 006019815X
Publication Date: 2002-04-02
Authors and Themes
American Authors: A Selected List
Books & Authors This link opens in a new window
Books & Authors offers new ways to explore the endless possibilities and combinations of books, authors, genres and topics. Combining over 140,000 titles, 50,000 authors, and thousands of read-alike, award winner and librarian's favorites lists, Books & Authors helps bring readers and literature together.
- Rudolfo Anaya
- Saul Bellows
- Charles Chesnutt
- Ralph Ellison
- William Faulkner
- Henry James
- Audre Lorde
- Toni Morrison
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Amy Tan
Themes and Subjects: Another List to Start
- Alienation; Isolation; Relationship with Nature, Society, or Self
- The American Dream
- Gender roles; Gender / Sexual Identity
- Identity; Self-Identity
- Immigration; Assimilation; Intersectionality
- Innocence (and Loss of); Coming of Age
- Rebellion; Protest; Activism
- Regionalism
- Religion; Morality
- Slavery; Slave narratives
Encyclopedias and Anthologies
Asian American Literature: an Encyclopedia for Students by Keith Lawrence (Editor)
This volume collects, in one place, a breadth of information about Asian American literary and cultural history as well as the authors and texts that best define it. A dozen contextual essays introduce fundamental elements or subcategories of Asian American literature, expanding on social and literary concerns or tensions that are familiar and relevant. Essays include the origins and development of the term "Asian American"; overviews of Asian American and Asian Canadian social and literary histories; essays on Asian American identity, gender issues, and sexuality; and discussions of Asian American rhetoric and children's literature. More than 120 alphabetical entries round out the volume and cover important Asian North American authors. Historical information is presented in clear and engaging ways, and author entries emphasize biographical or textual details that are significant to contemporary young adults. Special attention has been given to pioneering authors from the late 19th century through the early 1970s and to influential or well-known contemporary authors, especially those likely to be studied in high school or university classrooms.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1440872899
Publication Date: 2021-08-25
Black Women Writers This link opens in a new window
Black Women Writers celebrates the many voices of women from Africa and the African Diaspora. Offering fiction, poetry, and essays from three continents, the database gives an unparalleled view of black women's struggles through time.
The Cambridge Companion to American Gay and Lesbian Literature by Scott Herring (Editor)
This Companion examines the connections between LGBTQ populations and American literature from the late eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. It surveys primary and secondary writings under the evolving category of gay and lesbian authorship, and incorporates current thinking in US-based LGBTQ studies as well as critical practices within the field of American literary studies. This Companion also addresses the ways in which queerness pervades persons, texts, bodies, and reading, while paying attention to the transnational component of such literatures. In so doing, it details the chief genres, conventional historical backgrounds, and influential interpretive practices that support the analysis of LGBTQ literatures in the United States.
Call Number: PS153.G38 C36 2015 (Boca Raton Campus)
ISBN: 9781107646186
Publication Date: 2015-05-19
The Handbook of African American Literature by Hazel Arnett Ervin
"Ervin's comprehensive and handy compilation of essential background and interpretive materials for studying African American literature fills a void that has existed in literary scholarship. Both scholars and students will find it an indispensable resource."--Annie S. Perkins, Norfolk State University "An impressive, necessary reference tool. A guide to the origins of terms used to create ethnic resonance in descriptions of African American literary works, the book also includes traditional terms appropriated for the purpose of locating African American works in a metahistory."--Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Dillard University This is the first comprehensive resource devoted to the analysis, interpretation, history, and appreciation of African American literature. The definitive book on the subject, it will be indispensable to students, scholars, and libraries at all levels. The handbook features an A to Z compilation of 415 literary terms, ages, movements, periods, and cultural sources, all cross-referenced. Terms include techniques, genres, themes, forms, well-known phrases, modes of discourse, theoretical concepts, and diction from music and linguistics. Definitions provide substantive discussion and cite specific examples from the works of major critics and major and minor writers from the 1700s to the present. Up-to-date and relevant, the guide includes information from the colonial and reconstruction periods to the postmodern era and from cultural sources ranging from folk legends to hip-hop music. Eight full-length essays, which serve as introductions to important aspects of literary theory and criticism, cover major terms--ambiguity, memory, signification, repetition, collective unconscious, representation, influence, and literary history. In addition to discussions of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, the book describes the Chicago Renaissance of the 1930s to 1950s, the New Renaissance of the 1950s, and the new black aesthetics of the 1980s. An especially compelling feature of the book is a literary timeline, divided into sections for African, African American, and Anglophone Caribbean literature that illustrates what was written during the same years in different parts of the world. The book also lists awards and honors given to African American authors. Long overdue, Hazel Arnett Ervin's accessible handbook fills a void in literary arts and letters, a tribute to the rich vernacular tradition that has evolved from African American oral and written expression. Hazel Arnett Ervin is associate professor of English and linguistics at Morehouse College.
Call Number: PS153 .N5 E78 2004 (Boca Raton and Jupiter Campuses) and eBook
ISBN: 0813027500
Publication Date: 2004-06-30
The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature by Hana Wirth-Nesher (Editor); Michael P. Kramer (Editor)
For more than two hundred years, Jews have played important roles in the development of American literature. The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature addresses a wide array of themes and approaches to the distinct yet multifaceted body of Jewish American literature. Essays examine writing from the 1700s to major contemporary writers such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. Topics covered include literary history, immigration and acculturation, Yiddish and Hebrew literature, popular culture, women writers, literary theory and poetics, multilingualism, the Holocaust, and contemporary fiction. This collection of specially commissioned essays by leading figures discusses Jewish American literature in relation to ethnicity, religion, politics, race, gender, ideology, history, and ethics, and places it in the contexts of both Jewish and American writing. With its chronology and guides to further reading, this volume will prove valuable to scholars and students alike.
Call Number: PS153.J4 C36 2003 and eBook
ISBN: 0511998759
Publication Date: 2006-05-28
Latino Literature This link opens in a new window
Latino Literature brings together more than 100,000 pages of poetry, fiction, and over 450 plays written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latino authors working in the United States. Some items included have never been published before. Researchers will also find numerous Chicano folk tales and audio files of selected poems and plays.
Latino Literature in America by Bridget Kevane
There is growing awareness of the tremendous impact Latino writers have had on the recent literary scene, yet not all readers have the background to fully appreciate the merits and meanings of works like "House on Mango Street," "Line of the Sun," "Bless Me Ultima," and "In the Time of Butterflies." Offering analysis of their most important, popular, and frequently assigned fictional works, this book surveys the contributions of eight notable Latino writers: Julia Alvarez, Rodolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Christina Garia, Oscar Hijuelos, Ortiz Cofer, and Ernesto Quinonez. Each chapter gives biographical background on the author and clear literary analysis of the selected works, including a concise plot synopsis. Delving into the question of cultural identity, each work is carefully examined not only in terms of its literary components, but also with regard to the cultural background and historical context. This book illuminates such themes as acculturation, generational differences, immigration, assimilation, and exile. Language, religion, and gender issues are explored against the cultural backdrop, along with the social impact of such historical events as Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico, the early days of Castro's Cuba, and the Trujillo Dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Students and teachers will find their reading experiences of U.S. Latino works enriched with the literary and cultural perspectives offered here. A list of additional suggested reading is included."
Call Number: PS153 .H56 K48 2008 (Boca Raton Campus) and eBook
ISBN: 1280908750
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
The Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature by Kevin J. Hayes (Editor)
The Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature is a major new reference work that provides the best single-volume source of original scholarship on early American literature. Comprised of twenty-seven chapters written by experts in their fields, this work presents an authoritative, in-depth,and up-to-date assessment of a crucial area within literary studies.Organized primarily in terms of genre, the chapters include original research on key concepts, as well as analysis of interesting texts from throughout colonial America. Separate chapters are devoted to literary genres of great importance at the time of their composition that have been neglected inrecent decades, such as histories, promotion literature, and scientific writing. New interpretations are offered on the works of Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards and Dr. Alexander Hamilton while lesser known figures are also brought to light. Newly vital areas like print culture and naturalhistory are given full treatment. As with other Oxford Handbooks, the contributors cover the field in a comprehensive yet accessible way that is suitable for those wishing to gain a good working knowledge of an area of study and where it's headed.
Call Number: PS185 .O94 2008 (Boca Raton Campus) and eBook
ISBN: 9780195187274
Publication Date: 2008-02-06
The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature by James H. Cox (Editor); Daniel Heath Justice (Editor)
Over the course of the last twenty years, Native American and Indigenous American literary studies has experienced a dramatic shift from a critical focus on identity and authenticity to the intellectual, cultural, political, historical, and tribal nation contexts from which these Indigenous literatures emerge. The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature reflects on these changes and provides a complete overview of the current state of the field. The Handbook's forty-three essays, organized into four sections, cover oral traditions, poetry, drama, non-fiction, fiction, and other forms of Indigenous American writing from the seventeenth through the twenty-first century. Part I attends to literary histories across a range of communities, providing, for example, analyses of Inuit, Chicana/o, Anishinaabe, and Métis literary practices. Part II draws on earlier disciplinary and historical contexts to focus on specific genres, as authors discuss Indigenous non-fiction, emergent trans-Indigenous autobiography, Mexicanoh and Spanish poetry, Native drama in the U.S. and Canada, and even a new Indigenous children's literature canon. The third section delves into contemporary modes of critical inquiry to expound on politics of place, comparative Indigenism, trans-Indigenism, Native rhetoric, and the power of Indigenous writing to communities of readers. A final section thoroughly explores the geographical breadth and expanded definition of Indigenous American through detailed accounts of literature from Indian Territory, the Red Atlantic, the far North, Yucatán, Amerika Samoa, and Francophone Quebec. Together, the volume is the most comprehensive and expansive critical handbook of Indigenous American literatures published to date. It is the first to fully take into account the last twenty years of recovery and scholarship, and the first to most significantly address the diverse range of texts, secondary archives, writing traditions, literary histories, geographic and political contexts, and critical discourses in the field.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780199914036
Publication Date: 2014-08-28
The Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U. S. South by Fred Hobson (Editor); Barbara Ladd (Editor)
The Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South brings together contemporary views of the literature of the region in a series of chapters employing critical tools not traditionally used in approaching Southern literature. It assumes ideas of the South--global, multicultural, plural: more Souths than South--that would not have been embraced two or three decades ago, and it similarly expands the idea of literature itself. Representative of the current range of activity in the field of Southern literary studies, it challenges earlier views of antebellum Southern literature, as well as, in its discussions of twentieth-century writing, questions the assumption that the Southern Renaissance of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s was the supreme epoch of Southern expression, that writing to which all that had come before had led and by which all that came afterward was judged. As well as canonical Southern writers, it examines Native American literature, Latina/o literature, Asian American as well as African American literatures, Caribbean studies, sexuality studies, the relationship of literature to film, and a number of other topics which are relatively new to the field.
Call Number: eBook (FAU log-in required)
ISBN: 019045511X
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Last updated on Oct 7, 2022 3:15 PM