Finding Literary Criticism
Tips for finding literary criticism
- To find criticism on a particular piece, put the title of the piece in quotation marks in one box, and the name of the author in the box below it (example below). You might find articles analyzing your piece, or chapters within a book/essays within an anthology might be good as well. If you have a particular theme you are looking for, type search term(s) reflecting the theme into a third search box.
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- To find criticism on an author as a whole, search for the name of the author. If you have a particular theme you are looking for, type search term(s) reflecting the theme into a third search box.
- Note: It's useful to remember that articles rarely contain the exact thesis of your paper. Rather than looking for articles that focus on all of the exact themes you are looking for, you will likely need to combine arguments from a few different articles with your own interpretation of the text.
The following databases are the best ones the library has for finding literary criticism about your piece(s).
- Gale Literature This link opens in a new windowThis database is dedicated to finding sources about literary pieces. When searching, look at the results in the "Literature Criticism" tab.
- OneSearch This link opens in a new windowIn Advanced Search, choose the BC Library Books & eBooks option, then search for your author and/or piece. You can also search for books on certain genres or time periods. You may not find entire books on your piece, but you might find chapters--take a look at the table of contents for books that seem useful.
- Gale Power Search This link opens in a new windowIf you've been unsuccessful with Gale Literature or OneSearch, use this database instead. It searches a wider range of sources, so the results might be less targeted, but you might dig up something you haven't seen in Gale Literature or OneSearch.
The boxes below showcase some of the books and ebooks we have on literary criticism related to Civil War literature.
Print Books
The following books can be found in the library's General Collection, or the white-labeled book shelves. Use the call number to find the book on the shelves. You can check out 20 general books at one time. Each book can be checked out for 3 weeks, with up to two renewals of 3 weeks each.
God and General Longstreet: The Lost Cause and the Southern Mind by Call Number: E487 .C798 1995ISBN: 0807120146Publication Date: 1995-03-01
Bugle Echoes: A Collection of Poems of the Civil War, Northern and Southern by Call Number: E647 .B8792ISBN: 0836961358Publication Date: 1977-06-01
The Cambridge History of American Literature by Call Number: PS92 .C34 1994ISBN: 0521301068Publication Date: 1995-01-27
Freedom Narratives of African American Women: A Study of 19th Century Writings by Call Number: PS153.N5 L457 2017ISBN: 9781476667782Publication Date: 2017-10-25
Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War by Call Number: PS211 .W5ISBN: 9780393312560Publication Date: 1963
The literature of America by Call Number: PS507 .L58Publication Date: 1967Also considered Primary Source
The Norton Anthology of American Literature by Call Number: PS507 .N65 2007 v.BISBN: 9780393927405Publication Date: 2007-04-19Also considered a Primary Source
eBooks on Literature & The Civil War
From Battlefields Rising: How The Civil War Transformed American Literature by ISBN: 9780195342307Publication Date: 2011-01-03
The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861-1865 by ISBN: 9780807825815Publication Date: 2001-01-22
Literature and Humanitarian Reform in the Civil War Era by ISBN: 9780253330420Publication Date: 1996-12-01
Loyal Subjects: Bonds of Nation, Race, and Allegiance in Nineteenth-Century America by ISBN: 9780813547800Publication Date: 2010-08-19
Romantic Reformers and the Antislavery Struggle in the Civil War Era by ISBN: 9781107074590Publication Date: 2014-08-11The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War by
ISBN: 9780817350024Publication Date: 2003-01-08
eBooks on African Americans in Literature
The Black Pacific Narrative: Geographic Imaginings of Race and Empire Between the World Wars by
ISBN: 9781611686128Publication Date: 2014-11-04
A Freedom Bought with Blood: African American War Literature From the Civil War to World War II by ISBN: 9780807831168Publication Date: 2007-09-03- From Battlefields Rising: How The Civil War Transformed American Literature by ISBN: 9780195342307Publication Date: 2011-01-03
Hearing the Hurt: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, and Politics of the New Negro Movement by ISBN: 9780817317669Publication Date: 2012-06-19
Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem: African American Literature and Culture, 1877-1919 by ISBN: 9780814731673Publication Date: 2006-06-01
Temperance and Cosmopolitanism: African American Reformers in the Atlantic World by ISBN: 9780271082035Publication Date: 2018-10-01The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature by
ISBN: 9780226101699Publication Date: 2013-12-06
The Word in Black and White: Reading 'Race' in American Literature, 1638-1867 by ISBN: 9780195065923Publication Date: 1992-01-02
