What is Literary Criticism?
Literary criticism is the "Assessment and interpretation of literary works. The term ‘criticism’ is often taken to mean exclusively adverse comment, but in fact it refers to all literary assessment, whether positive or negative."
From Helicon (Ed.). (2018). Literary criticism. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Helicon. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6NTE1NDIz?aid=293406
Selected Literary Criticism Articles
- Notes of a Native Son (Analysis)Heller, Terry. “Notes of a Native Son.” Masterplots II: African American Literature, Revised Edition, Dec. 2008, pp. 1–4. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mjh&AN=164537168&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
- The Art of Reading James Baldwin: The Truth of Our PainGiraldi, William. "The art of reading James Baldwin: The truth of our pain." Poets & Writers Magazine, vol. 45, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2017, pp. 25+. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A507657558/LitRC?u=ctstate&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=56d2cb9e. Accessed 6 Feb. 2024.
- Reading and Theorizing James Baldwin: A Bibliographic EssayFrancis, Conseula. “Reading and Theorizing James Baldwin: A Bibliographic Essay.” James Baldwin Review, vol. 1, 2015, pp. 179–98. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48664481. Accessed 6 Feb. 2024.
Literary Criticism Databases
- Literature Criticism This link opens in a new window Explore the most extensive compilation of literary commentary available. Includes analysis from book excerpts, periodicals, and more. Includes Contemporary Literary Criticism, Children's Literature Review, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Drama Criticism, Literature Criticism (1400-1800), 19th Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Short Story Criticism, 20th Century Literary Criticism.
- MagillOnLiterature Plus This link opens in a new window Contains biographical essays that reflect extended coverage of the 2,500 most studied authors and include up-to-date lists of each author’s principal works and current secondary bibliographies. More than 8,500 writers of fiction, poetry, drama, and essays are featured. There are more than 400 comprehensive essays on specific literary genres, themes and settings round out the collection. A cross-referenced glossary of terms is also included to provide definitive explanations of more than 1,800 literary words and phrases.
- Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new window Bloom's Literature contains a wide range of reference essays and scholarly criticism examining great authors and their works throughout history, as well as full-length videos of classic plays and films. Bloom's Literature includes a Literary Classics eBook shelf containing the full contents of more than 1,000 classic works of literature, and also includes a Shakespeare Center which houses in one convenient location a treasure trove of content on all things Shakespeare.
- Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Find up-to-date biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras. Includes Dictionary of Literary Biography, Something About the Author.
- JSTOR Archival Journal & Primary Source Collection This link opens in a new window The JSTOR Archival Journals and Primary Sources Collection contains all licensed JSTOR archival journals and primary sources content in a single collection, including Archive Journal Collections and thematic collections; specifically, it includes Arts & Sciences I – XV, Business IV, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Jewish Studies, Life Sciences, Public Health, Lives of Literature, Security Studies, and Sustainability journal collections. It also contains four primary source collections, 19th Century British Pamphlets, World Heritage Sites: Africa, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, and Global Plants. This collection contains 2,877 high quality academic journals from across a wide range of disciplines and hundreds of thousands of primary source items.
How to write about James Baldwin
- Essay topics: James BaldwinThis resource from Bloom's Literature outlines several ideas for essay topics about James Baldwin and his work.
- Essay topics: Notes of a Native SonThis resource from Bloom's Literature provides possible essay topics for Baldwin's essay collection "Notes of a Native Son."
Writing Handbooks
MLA Guide to Undergraduate Research in Literature by Call Number: PR 56 .B76 2019ISBN: 9781603294362Publication Date: 2019-05-01
Rules for Writers by Call Number: TEXTBOOK PE 1408 .H277 2022ISBN: 9781319244255Publication Date: 2021-10-11
