RACC PATHFINDER # 6
How to Find Literary Criticism
When you need literary criticism about a particular writer's work, The Yocum Library has materials in the General, Reference, and Periodical collections.
First you should know three things about your writer:
- Nationality (American, English, French, Mexican, etc.)
- Time Period (Classical, 18th, 19th, 20th century, etc.)
- Form of Literature (novel, drama, short story, poetry, etc.)
If you need help identifying a writer, check the sources in the Literature section in the RACC PATHFINDER # 4: How to Find Biographical Information.
To find literary criticism in the General Collection, go to #3 Subject Browse on the Computer Catalog Menu and enter:
- the writer's name, for example, Hawthorne, Nathaniel, or Updike, John
- the type of literature, for example, American Drama, or Poets, French
To find literary criticism in the Reference Collection, check the following sources:
- Gale Literary Criticism series, a collection of literary criticisms arranged by time period or format. Check the author index in the newest volume of the CLC series in order to find all the references to an author in any of the series. RACC owns the following sets:
- Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism (for authors who lived from antiquity through 1399)
- Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 (LC)
- Shakespearean Criticism
- Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism (NCLC) (for authors who died between 1800 -1899)
- Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) (for authors who died between 1900 -1959)
- Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) (for authors who are now living or died after 1959)
- Short Story Criticism (SSC)
- Poetry Criticism (PC)
- Black Literature Criticism (BLC)
- Drama Criticism (DC)
- Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism (NCLC), Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (TCLC), and Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) include Topics - volumes which are published occasionally and focus on themes rather than on particular authors, for example, American Civil War in Literature B NCLC 32, Utopian Literature in the Nineteenth Century B NCLC 24, The Vampire in Literature B TCLC 46.
The Magill series of literary criticism provide brief coverage of an author's background and significance in the literary world. Choose the series covering the type of literature which your author wrote.
Critical Survey of Contemporary Literature B Ref/ PN 44 .M34
Critical Survey of Short Fiction B Ref/ PN 3321 .C7
Critical Survey of Long Fiction B Ref/ PN 3451 .C7
Critical Survey of Poetry B Ref/ PR 502 .C85
Critical Survey of Drama B Ref/ PR 623 .C75
Critical Survey of Mystery & Detective Fiction B Ref/ PN 3448 .D4C75
Browse in the PQ, PR, and PS sections of the Reference Collection to see other sets such as
American women writers from colonial times to the present
American writers
Moulton's library of literary criticism
The New Moulton's library of literary criticism
British writers
To find literary criticism in the Periodical Collection, check EBSCOhost for references to journal articles about your writer. Also, The Yocum Library receives the following literature journals:
- Nineteenth Century Literature
- Twentieth Century Literature
- Explicator
- Modern Fiction Studies
- Studies in Short Fiction
- VQR: Virginia Quarterly Review
If you can identify an article from a journal which we do not have in our collection, we can help you obtain the article from another library.