ENGL 3500A Literatures and Cultures 1700-1900

Getting Started

This course guide supports ENGL 3500A. The guide provides links to resources in the library and online for these three British Literary Periods:

The Age of Enlightenment (1650-1800)
The Romantic and Regency Eras (1800-1850)
The Victorian Era (1837-1901)

We [I] would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg people.

* NEW * Videos and resources produced by Ryan Tucci, First Year Experience Teaching and Learning Technician at MacOdrum Library.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course:

Students will find information from appropriate resources for their essays.
Students evaluate information sources for relevance, authority, currency and perspective using the CRAAP guidelines.
Students properly cite appropriate document sources (for example primary and secondary materials)
Students will gain an understanding of research methods.

Reference Materials

Begin your research with a reference book. This will save you some time as these books contain brief overviews on specific topics. Here are a few selected bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks and guides to read.

Literary Encyclopedias and Biographies

The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era World : : a Reader's Companion to the People, Places, Events, and Everyday Life of the Victorian Era / Melinda Corey ; George Ochoa (1996) STF DA550.E53
The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature / Dino Franco Felluga (2015) RSV PR451.E68 2015 vols.1-5
Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to 2000 / Peter N. Stearns (2001) HN373.E63 2001
Dictionary of National Biography / Sidney Lee, et.al. (1921-22) STF DA28.D47
Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature / David Scott Kastan (2006)

Historical Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Daily Life in Victorian England / Sally Mitchell (2009)
The London Encyclopedia / Ben Weinreb (1983) DA679.A15
Victorian Britain : an Encyclopedia / Sally Mitchell (1988) STF DA550.V53

Guides and Handbooks

A Handbook to Literature / William Harmon ; C. Holman ; Hugh, C. (2003) PN41.H355 2003
Cambridge Companion to ...
Handbooks dedicated to single authors or literary movements.
Companion to the Victorian Novel / Patrick Brantlinger ; William B. Thesing (2002) PR871.C643 2002
The Oxford Companion to British History / Robert Crowcroft (2015) (Online) (Print)
The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction / John Sutherland (1989) PR871.S87

Bibliographies and Dictionaries

Oxford Dictionary of English / Angus Stevenson (2011)
A Dictionary of Victorian London : an A-Z of the Great Metropolis / Lee, Jackson (2006) DA683 .D53 2006 (Online)
Romantic Poetry by Women : a Bibliography, 1770-1835 / J.R. de (1993) STF Z013.5.W6 J33

Primary Collections

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources
Databases:
Digital Collections:
- A Celebration of Women Writers
- Jane Austen's Fiction Manuscripts Digital Archive
  "The Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition gathers together in the virtual space of the web some 1100 pages of fiction written in Jane Austen’s own hand."
- Luminarium : An Anthology of English Literature
- The Shelley-Godwin Archive
  "The Shelley-Godwin Archive provides the digitized manuscripts of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, aiming to unite online for the first time the widely dispersed handwritten legacy of this uniquely gifted family of writers, and thereby document their works, life, and thought, including the development of many outstanding pieces of English literature and political philosophy."
- Victorian Women Writers Project
  "The Victorian Women Writers Project (VWWP) began in 1995 at Indiana University and is primarily concerned with the exposure of lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century."
- The William Blake Archive
  "A free site on the World Wide Web since 1996, the Blake Archive was conceived as an international public resource that would provide unified access to major works of visual and literary art that are highly disparate, widely dispersed, and more and more often severely restricted as a result of their value, rarity, and extreme fragility."

Literary Research

Literary Criticism (Definition)
The Oxford English Dictionary defines Literary criticism as “the art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of a literary work; consideration or analysis of a text in relation to language, structure, biography, history, etc., or by a particular philosophical, political, or linguistic method; (also) an instance of this, esp. in a written form; a school or method of criticizing literature."

Literary Criticism and Literary Theory

A selection of books:

Key Terms in Literary Theory / Mary Klages (2012) (Online) ; (Online)
Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary : A Compendium to More Than 500 Literary, Critical, and Theatrical Movements, Schools, and Groups from More Than 80 Nations, Covering the Novelists, Poets, Short-Story Writers, Dramatists, Essayists, Theorists, and Works, Genres, Techniques, and Terms Associated with Each Movement / Helene Henderson ; Jay P. Pederson (2000) PN597.T94 ; (Online at Internet Archive)

Finding Literary Criticism

There are various ways to find books of literary criticism:

a) Types of Literary Criticism

b) Literary Movements

c) Books on a Major Work

d) Books about an Author

A) Types of Literary Criticism

Check

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism / Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth (1997- ) (1994)
(Best resource to find names of movements, perspectives and places)

Then

Do a Keyword search in Omni from the Advanced Search option for word with Boolean term AND plus criticism. (Tip: Scroll down page and filter by Subject to literary criticism)
Example: Gender AND criticism

B) Literary Movements

Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary : A Compendium to More Than 500 Literary, Critical, and Theatrical Movements, Schools, and Groups from More Than 80 Nations, Covering the Novelists, Poets, Short-Story Writers, Dramatists, Essayists, Theorists, and Works, Genres, Techniques, and Terms Associated with Each Movement / Helene Henderson ; Jay P. Pederson (2000) PN597.T94 ; (Online at Internet Archive)
- Check the index for the time period, as well as, specific literary movements, such as:
  - Feminist Criticism
  - Futurism Literary Movement

C) Books on a Major Work

To find literary criticism about a particular work, do a Subject search for the title.
- Example: In Omni, Select the Advanced Search button, then choose Subject from the drop down menu (from the first field):
  [Subject: "Things Fall Apart"]

D) Books on an Author

To find literary criticism about an author, you must do a Subject search in the selected database.
- Example: In Omni, Select the Advanced Search button, then choose Subject from the drop down menu (from the first field). Remember to always search by the Last Name, First Name:
  [Subject: "bulawayo, noviolet"]
- Refine your results from the Left side as you scroll down the page. Look at the categories, for example: Resource Type, Publication Date, Library of Congress Subject Headings under Subject, etc.

Find Books and eBooks

The library's search tool, Omni, allows you to search for books, journal articles, media, and more with a single search. You can access Omni from the library's homepage. Also try Advanced Search.

When searching Omni, consider the following:

Once you have your results:

To see only BOOKS, under Resource Type, click on Book.
To see only JOURNAL ARTICLES click on Articles.

Because there will be many results, it is important to narrow your search.

Narrow by:

Availability
Publication Date
Subject Terms
Language
Journal Title

Search Tips

Example: Women travelers AND Great Britain AND Biography
finds the title Penelope Voyages : Women and Travel in the British Literary Tradition

Scroll down to see the subject headings:

Explore the nearby entries for other relevant Subject Headings
Example:

Use certain subjects headings:
Example: Travel in literature
Example: English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Example: Politics and literature – Great Britain – History – 19^th century
Example: London (England) – Social life and customs –19^th century
For more information, consult Omni Search Tips.

eBooks

eBooks can be found in Omni by author, title, subject and keyword searching.
Do a search and then limit your search to retrieve only eBooks by using the drop down menu:

Use boolean operators AND/OR to create a relevant search statement.
Use the truncation symbol * when you want to allow for several spellings or variations on a word.
Use quotation marks "" around search words to return results with exact phrasing.

Finding Playwrights

The library holdings consist of individual plays as well as plays in anthologies. It is easy to find individual plays in Omni. Perform Title, Author or Keyword search.

Here are two tips for finding plays in collected works:

Use the playwright's name and one of these three words: WORKS, PLAYS, DRAMA
Example: Colley Cibber AND plays
Search for the play title as Keyword with the playwright's surname
Example: "The Importance of Being Earnest" AND Wilde

Other Search Tools

Evaluating sources: Use the CRAAP test

Secondary Sources: (Databases, Magazines, Newspapers, etc.)

Databases and Journals

Academic Journals vs. Popular Magazines

Check in Ulrichsweb to be sure!
Go to the publisher's web page to see criteria for submissions
Look to a list for titles from reputable source for example: Open Access Online Journals

Why use journals?

They are more up-to-date than most books.
They are “peer reviewed” by other scholars in the field who check for academic integrity.
They are concise and focused on a specific aspect of a topic.
Every article will contain cited references that appear as footnotes and/or bibliographies.
Most are now in online and accessible anytime and from off campus.

For best results do a search using keywords or phrases in a subject database to find references to scholarly articles.
When a database gives you an option, always limit to scholarly (or academic or peer reviewed) journals.

Tip:
Never limit to full-text only because you will miss any references to articles in journals when another vendor has the full-text publishing rights.

Recommended Databases

Gale Literature
Gale Literature brings together Gale's premier literary databases, allowing researchers, faculty and students to search across these resources with a single query
Literature Reference Center
Full-text articles from scholarly journals are combined with critical essays, biographies, and more to provide information on authors, their works, and literary movements.
MLA International Bibliography
Provides citations and abstracts to articles and other written materials on international literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore.

Also consult multidisciplinary databases such as:

Academic OneFile
A multidisciplinary database providing access to journals on a wide range of topics.
Historical Abstracts
Contains citations and abstracts of journal articles, book reviews and dissertations in all areas of the history of the world.
Periodicals Archive Online
An online archive of digitized, full-image journal articles offering access to international scholarly literature in the humanities and social sciences disciplines.
Project Muse
A collection of scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Google Scholar

Selected Journal Titles

Magazines

Gentleman’s Magazine
Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Review
Household Words

Newspapers and Periodical Index

Reading and Writing Resources

Reading:

How to … Read a Scholarly Article (Western University)(2012) (Youtube 2:34m)
How to Read a Book / Mortimer J. Adler, (2011) (1972)

Writing

Use the excellent resource OWL - Purdue University's Online Writing Lab.
Explore the sections to find help on
- The Writing Process
- Essay Writing
Writers Services (Carleton University)
- Learning and Writing Support Workshops
Guide to Literary Research, Writing and Critical Reading
Writing in Literature (Purdue OWL)
The Reader Over Your Shoulder : a Handbook for Writers of English Prose / Robert Graves, et. al. (2018)
How to Write a BA Thesis : a Practical Guide from Your First Ideas to Your Finished Paper / Charles Lipson (2005) LB2369.I54 2005
English for Academic Research: Grammar, Usage and Style / Adrian Wallwork (2013)

Citing your sources

It is essential to understand how and when to use citations in your essays and projects to ensure the Academic Integrity of your work. Good help is available!

Research and Citation Resources - Guides to citation styles from OWL
Citing Your Sources - Carleton's general guide to resources on all the main styles including video links.

Websites

Some sites to visit:

General

Literary Periods, Movements and History (The Literary Network)

18th Century : Websites

British History Online
Contains printed sources on British history.
English Crime and Execution Broadsides
"This collection of nearly 600 broadsides highlights crime and capital punishment, primarily in England, as seen through the popular press in the 18th and 19th century."
Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online, 1674-1913
"A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court."

19th Century : Websites

At the Circulating Library
"Begun in 2007, At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901 offers a biographical and bibliography database of nineteenth-century British fiction. The database is hosted by the Victorian Research Web, a major and free research resource for Victorian scholars."
BRANCH: Britain, Representation, and Nineteenth-Century History
"This site provides users with a free, expansive, searchable, reliable, peer-reviewed, copy-edited, easy-to-use overview of the period 1775-1925."
British Archives
The national archives of England, Wales and the United Kingdom.
British History Online
"British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles."
Carlyle Letters Online
"The Carlyles and Their “Victorian” World in Letters."
Darwin Correspondence Project
Discovering Literature : Romantics and Victorians (British Library)
English Literature Timeline (The 1800s)
Internet History Sourcebooks
Literary History
"Literaryhistory.com catalogs credible literary criticism on nineteenth and twentieth century English and American literature that is available on the free internet. The books and articles we link to are selected by the editor, based on our selection policy. This site is intended to be a demonstration project, showing what would be possible if there were many good, open access articles on the internet, and if they were analyzed and screened by an advisory committee of scholars."
N I N E S: Nineteenth Century Scholarship Online
"NINES is a scholarly organization devoted to forging links between the material archive of the nineteenth century and the digital research environment of the twenty-first."
The Novel in Europe, 1670-1730 (Olaf Simons et al.)
Pikle: The Diary Junction (Paul K. Lyons)
"The aim of this website is to provide an internet resource for those interested in historical and literary diaries and diarists."
Rossetti Archive
"The Rossetti Archive facilitates the scholarly study of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the painter, designer, writer, and translator who was, according to both John Ruskin and Walter Pater, the most important and original artistic force in the second half of the nineteenth century in Great Britain. In Whistler's famous comment, 'He was a king'."
Victoria Research Web
"VRW is dedicated to the scholarly study of nineteenth-century Britain, and to aiding researchers, teachers, and students in their investigations of any and all aspects of this fascinating period."
The Victorian Web