How To: Literary Research

For help finding, evaluating, and using web-based resources, please see the following guides and tutorials:

• Evaluating Sources
• Evaluating Websites
• Scholarly vs. Popular Sources
• Expand or Narrow Your Search
• Using Google Scholar

• Literary Criticism Online 
  An online library of literary studies concerning 19th and 20th century authors. Articles linked through this site are provided by JSTOR; an account is necessary to access these articles. Individuals can sign up for a free account to get access to 100 articles per month.
   
• Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research 
  A comprehensive listing of Internet resources on the humanities from the University of California, Santa Barbara English Department, including sections on Classical Studies, Literary Theory, Literature in English, and Literature (other than English).
   
• MERLOT II: Literature
  Over 700 open educational resources on literature from the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching website.

American Literature

• Survey of American Literature II 
  Covers American literary works from the late nineteenth century to the present.
   
• African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
  This is a digital collection of approximately 52 published works by 19th century black women writers. A part of the Digital Schomburg, this collection provides access to the thought, perspectives, and creative abilities of black women as captured in books and pamphlets published prior to 1920.
   
• American Literature Classics Library
  A free library of over 400 classic American books and novels.
   
• American Memory - Arts and Literature
  American Memory provides open access to full text historical documents and materials from the Library of Congress. Represented are all areas of  American study including the country's rich cultural and literacy legacy. Some of the country's most influential writers and artists are represented.

World Literature

• Invitation to World Literature 
  (Annenberg Learner) This  web site  provides a multimedia approach to the following literary titles: The epic of Gilgamesh, My Name is Red, The Odyssey, The Bacchae, The Bhagavad Gita, The Tale of Genji, Journey to the West, Popol Vuh, Candide, Things Fall Apart, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The God of Small Things, The Thousand and One Nights.

Early Modern

• Early Modern Literary Studies
  EMLS is committed to gathering and to maintaining links to the most useful and comprehensive internet resources for Renaissance scholars, including archives, electronic texts, discussion groups, and more.

Poetry 

• The Poetry Archive

  Listen to poets reading their poems. Poems can be found by poet, title, theme or poetic form.

• Poets.org

  One of the most comprehensive websites on poetry in English.

• The Poetry Center Digital Archive

  Includes audio recordings of leading 20th-century poets, primarily from the 50s.

• PoetrySociety.org

  Website of the Poetry Society of America.

• Poetry Foundation

  Poems, criticism, biographies and literary news from the publisher of Poetry magazine.

• Poetry Likeness: Modern American Poets

  From the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution.

• PoemHunter.com

  Provides links to over 800,000 poems and 80,000 poets.

Individual Authors

• Center for Faulkner Studies
  The Center for Faulkner Studies started at Southeast Missouri State University in 1989 is devoted to the study of William Faulkner.
   
• The Charles Chesnutt Digital Archive
  This site offers an extensive collection of works by Chesnutt, including novels, short stories, essays, reviews, and poems.
   
• Dickinson Electronic Archives
  A repository for the study of resources related to Emily Dickinson. Includes writings by the Dickinson family, teaching with the archives, responses to Dickinson's writings, and critical resources.
   
• Digital Thoreau
  Digital Thoreau is a resource dedicated to promoting the deliberate reading of Thoreau's works in new ways that take advantage of technology to illuminate his creative process and facilitate thoughtful conversations about his words and ideas.
   
• Edith Wharton Society
  Provides biographical and chronological information and links to full text, novels, stories and poetry.
   
• Emily Dickinson Archive
  An open- access website for the manuscripts of Emily Dickinson.
   
• The Ernest Hemingway Collection
  This collection at the JFK Presidential Library holds 90% of Hemingway's original manuscripts, has several Hemingway pictures, and links to other resources.
   
• Langston Hughes National Poetry Project
  This project began as part of the centennial celebration of Langston Hughes's life and work (1902–2002). It involves a series of public poetry and book discussion programs and an accompanying website.
   
• Mark Twain Project
  The Mark Twain Project offers access to writings of Mark Twain including letters, texts, and documents.
   
• The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies
  This site at San Jose State University is the only research archive in the world that is devoted to Steinbeck's life and works. It promotes Steinbeck's goals of empathy and understanding by supporting education, inquiry and the literary arts.
   
• The Walt Whitman Archive
  The archive aims to make Whitman's works freely and conveniently available to scholars, students, and the general public. It is the most comprehensive record of works by and about Whitman.
   
• The Willa Cather Archive
  A project of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, the archive provides digital editions of Cather's texts and scholarship free to users. Contains books, essays, interviews, speeches, public letters, photographs, and more.