UVM Libraries Research Guides: English & American Literature : 19th Century: Starting Points: Literature

Literary

Oxford Bibliographies. American Literature This link opens in a new window
This resource is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship (in all formats) on American literature from the last 500 years, with original introductory and commentary text followed by an annotated list of cited works. To see the list of entries by broad topic (e.g., time period; Themes, Groups, and Historical Events), in the left sidebar, click "Learn more about this subject."
Oxford Bibliographies. British and Irish Literature This link opens in a new window
This resource is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship (in all formats) on British and Irish literature from the early and medieval period to the present, with original introductory and commentary text followed by an annotated list of cited works. To see the list of entries by broad topic (e.g., time period; Themes, Forms, and Genres), in the left sidebar, click "Learn more about this subject."
Masterplots This link opens in a new window
This resource contains full-text summaries and critical evaluations of selected books, plays, stories, and poems in literature worldwide from all eras.

Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
Print: REF PS 21 .E537 2004 (4 vols)
Covers American literature, from the European discovery of America to the present, with essays on the most-studied American authors, literary masterworks, and genres or movements.
Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature
Covers the history of British literature from the seventh century to the present, with biographical essays on major authors and topical essays analyzing significant themes, movements, genres, and institutions.

Literary Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
This peer-reviewed online encyclopedia provides authoritative background and short criticism on world literature and cultural history. The work includes authored essays, chronologies, critical bibliographies, and more. It is continuously updated.
This encyclopedia is consciously adding essays on writers of more marginalized cultural identities, e.g., Caribbean Black British, British Asian, African American, Asian American, First Nations /Indigenous US-American (and Canadian), etc.

Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature
Call Number: REF PR 447 .E56 2012 (3 vols)
This is a comprehensive reference resource covering British artistic, literary, and intellectual movements from the late 18th century to the early 19th century, within the context of European, transatlantic and colonial historical and cultural interaction.

Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature
Comprehensive, scholarly, authoritative, and critical overview of literature and theory comprising individual titles covering key literary genres, periods, and sub-disciplines. Comprises 330+ cross-referenced entries ranging from 1,000 to 7,000 words.

Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Portal to full-text information (biographies, encyclopedias, companions, primary sources), images and maps about African Americans, African American life and culture, and Africa and the diaspora. This resource has over 600 subject entries on literature- and language-related topics.

Native American Literature
by Margo Lukens
From: Oxford Research Encyclopedia - Literature (free content)

Native American Literatures : an encyclopedia of works, characters, authors, and themes
Call Number: REF PS 153 .I52 W47 1999
An encyclopedia of Native American literatures featuring articles on individual authors, individual works, important characters in works, and on terms and events of historical significance that figure in many of the works.

American Renaissance
"The richest period in American literary history, the American Renaissance (1830–1865)
produced Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson."
by David S. Reynolds
From: Oxford Research Encyclopedia - Literature (free content)

Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism by Wesley T. Mott
Call Number: REF PS 217.T7 E53 1996

Handbooks & Companions - Literary

Oxford Handbooks Online
The titles in this multidisciplinary series offer authoritative surveys of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from recognized scholars in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates, as well as a foundation for future research.

The Oxford Companion to American Literature Includes entries for authors, works, characters, literary prizes, movements, critical theories, periods, groups, historical figures and foreign writers important to American literature, critics, theaters, periodicals, terminology, places, prosody, and allusions. Entries emphasize information rather than critical evaluation.
Call Number: REF PS 21 .H3 1995
The Oxford Companion to English Literature Includes entries for authors, works, characters, literary prizes, movements, critical theories, periods, groups, historical figures and foreign writers important to English literature, critics, theaters, periodicals, terminology, places, prosody, and allusions. Entries emphasize information rather than critical evaluation.
Call Number: REF PR 19 .O94 2009
The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature

Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland

Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
This resource, which provides access to an extensive set of encyclopedias, handbooks, companions and dictionaries from Oxford University Press, includes many "Oxford Companions" to literary authors such as Chaucer, Dickens, etc.

Literary Terms & Theory

These print reference books are located on the main/1st floor of the Howe Library. They are non-circulating (i.e., you may not check them out of the library) Look for these and other books of literary terms in the PN 41-44 call number range; literary theory in the PN 81-86 range.

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms [3rd ed] Defines hundreds of important literary and critical terms from classical times to the present, through examples uniquely drawn from contemporary literary and popular culture.
Call Number: REF PN 44.5 .M86 2009
A Glossary of Literary Terms [11th ed] by M. H. Abrams Contains a complete glossary of essential literary terms presented as a series of essays that explore the terms, place them in context. Covers terms useful in discussing literature and literary history, theory, and criticism.
Call Number: REF PN 41 .A27 2015

Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms

Literary theory and criticism : an introduction by Anne H. Stevens
Call Number: REF PN 86 .S84 2015

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
Presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements and is updated annually. It includes 300+ entries and subentries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.

A Handbook to Literature [12th ed] by William Harmon Dictionary of places, groups, movements, critical terms, genres, periods, character types, and other literary terms associated with English and American literature. Does not include biographies, plot summaries or characters.
Call Number: REF PN 41 .H355 2012
A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory [4th ed] by Jeremy Hawthorn
Call Number: REF PN 44.5 .H37 2000
Survey of the most important terms of postmodernist literary theory.

Dictionary of Critical Theory

Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism by Chris Murray (Editor)
Call Number: REF PN 86 .E63 1999 (2 vols)