ResearchGuides: ENG-2120 Survey of American Literature: Background Research and Primary Texts

Encyclopedia Databases

Oxford Companion to American Literature (6 ed.) There are over 2,000 biographical profiles of important American authors (with information regarding their style, subjects, and major works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who have been important in the nation's social and cultural history. There are more than 1,100 full summaries of important American novels, stories, essays, poems (with verse form noted), plays, biographies and autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories.
Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature This award-winning Encyclopedia surveys the vibrant terrain of American literature in 350 essays from leading scholars, encompassing the range and depth of American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. The Encyclopedia includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements, periods, and themes. No mere catalog of dates, events, and synopses, the Encyclopedia's articles offer historical perspective and social context along with a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach.
Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English This Companion examines English-language writers and writing throughout the twentieth century, in all major genres and from all around the world. All the great literary figures are included, whether American or Australian, British, Irish, or Indian, African or Canadian or Caribbean, among them Samuel Beckett, Edith Wharton, Patrick White, T S Eliot, Derek Walcott, D H Lawrence, Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov, Wole Soyinka, Sylvia Plath, as well as a wealth of less obviously canonical writers, from Anaïs Nin to L M Montgomery, Bob Dylan to Terry Pratchett. Fiction, plays, poetry, and a whole range of non-fictional writing are explored; also included are entries on literary movements, periodicals, and over 400 individual works. This is the most comprehensive single-volume guide to modern (and postmodern) literature in English.
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895 It is impossible to understand America without understanding the history of African Americans. In nearly seven hundred entries, the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 documents the full range of the African American experience during that period—from the arrival of the first slave ship to the death of Frederick Douglass—and shows how all aspects of American culture, history, and national identity have been profoundly influenced by the experience of African Americans. This landmark achievement, originally published in three volumes, is now available for the first time as an easily-searched, quick access e-book.
Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present This remarkable work traces the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and the ascendant influence of African Americans on the American cultural landscape. With coverage up to and including the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, the Encyclopedia contains approximately 1,200 fully cross-referenced entries all signed by leading scholars and experts, offering the most reliable and extensive treatment to be found on African American history in this era.
Credo Reference Database Full-text access to dictionary and encyclopedia articles from scholarly sources. A great place to start your research in order to understand your topic.

Full-Text Primary Text Databases

Documenting the American South Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Early American Imprints Nearly every book published in America between 1639 and 1819. Includes Early American Imprints Series I (Evans), Series II (Shaw/Shoemaker), and Supplements.

In-House Reference Resources

The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States by Cathy N. Davidson (Editor)
Call Number: PS147 .O94 1995 & in Ebook
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature by William L. Andrews (Editor)
Call Number: PS153.N5 O96 1997 & in Ebook
The Penguin Companion to American Literature by Malcolm Bradbury; Eric Mottram; Jean Franco
Call Number: PN843 .P4 & in Ebook

Oxford Reference Works

Suggested Primary Texts

White Noise by Don DeLillo
Call Number: PS3554.E4425 W48 1986 & in Ebook
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Call Number: PS3555.L625 I5 1992
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Call Number: PS3511.I9 G7 1953 & in Ebook
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Call Number: PS3606.O38 E97 2005
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Call Number: PS3515.U789 T44 1978
The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Leland S. Person (Editor)
Call Number: PS1868.A2 P47 2005 & in Ebook
Jazz by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 J38 2004 & in Ebook
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Call Number: PS3545.I5365 S8 & in Ebook