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LITERTURE


Bartleby.com: Great Books Online

•  Offers a collection of full text books via links to online sites, free of charge
•  Recently added the following reference works: Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.), American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.), Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, American Heritage Book of English Usage, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
•  Each of these reference sources may be accessed by table of contents, index or keyword
•  Offerings can be selected for reference, verse, fiction and non-fiction
•  Indexed by author, subject, title
•  Provides easily-used access to some of the best-known reference works, as well as literary offerings


Course Materials, Including Study Guides to Various Works

•  Created by Professor Paul Brians, Washington State University
•  These online study guides, approximately 75 in total, cover a wide range of 19th and 20th century literary classics, science fiction, the Bible as literature, love poetry, and world literature in English (India, Africa and the Caribbean)
•  Many have been prepared by Professor Brians; others, however, are the products of other sources (which are credited)
•  Certainly not comprehensive, nevertheless, does what it has sought to accomplish and provides a good example of what study guides can accomplish


Critical Reading: A Guide

•  Created by Professor John Lye, Department of English, Brock University
•  Designed as a guide for freshman college students, this page offers pointers for the critical analysis of poetry, fiction, prose in fiction, and essays
•  Does a good job covering the basics in a brief, well-structured format
•  Also useful are the author's The Problem of Meaning in Literature and Ideology: A Brief Guide


Electronic Literature Directory

•  Sponsored by Electronic Literature Organization
•  Provides access to eclectic assortment of a multitude of electronic literary formats
•  "Genre/Length" searches poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction by "short", "long" and "collections"
•  "Technique/Genre" searches poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction by hypertext, recorded reading/performance, animated text, generated text, reader collaboration, and other multimedia
•  In addition to browsing, can be searched by keyword
•  Very good source for non-traditional online texts, especially by lesser-known authors


Electronic Text Center: English Online Resources

•  Sponsored by University of Virginia Library
•  Provides several hundred online texts for American literature and English literature
•  Also includes illustrations and folio reproductions
•  Some links are restricted to University of Virginia users


English and American Literature Resources

•  Sponsored by the University of Connecticut Libraries
•  Provides links to over 200 sites for American and English literature, categorized by period and individual authors
•  Also provides a link-directory of selected metasites
•  Short annotations accompany most links


Great Books

•  Sponsored by Malaspina University-College ù Covers over 400 authors, philosophers and poets, from antiquity through modern times ù Arranged alphabetically by individual, each profile includes evaluated sites, biographical information and guidance to full-text sources ù Profile sites are largely taken from academic sources ù Good source, especially for ancient and non-Western authors/philosophers/poets


Heath Guide to American Literature Volume I

•  Sponsored by Georgetown University
•  Provides a website directory on American literature relating to the "Heath Anthology of American Literature"
•  Comprehensive and well-organized, this two-part site provides hundreds of links from colonial times to the present
•  Links to chronological overviews are useful for putting literary movements/genres in perspective
•  Literary figures include novelists, poets, essayists and presidents
•  Literature by multicultural and multiracial American authors is represented
•  Extent of links for individual authors varies, depending on the author's prominence
•  Links to authors may include the text of works, biographical material, critical analysis
•  This is one of the best general American literature sites on the Web, especially for the 19th and 20th centuries


Internet Sites Related to Electronic Literature, Choice Magazine

•  Created and maintained by Dr. Joanne Gates, Jacksonville State University
•  Originally published as an essay entitled "Literature in Electronic Format: The Traditional English and American Canon" in Choice Magazine, April 1997
•  Consists of over 130 links to English and American literature sites and sites for individual authors
•  Also links to sites for: electronic publishers, libraries/repositories, gopher lists, resources arranged by period or nationality


Literary Index

•  Created by Chris Flack, Department of English, Vanderbilt University
•  This short, informative web directory "...is not intended to be an exhaustive index of all literary resources; rather it functions as a descriptive meta-index to all things literary and as a review of all things literary..."
•  Links are broken down into: literature indices, doing literary research, English departments and literary institutes, archives of electronic texts, books and presses, composition, rhetoric and writing, the teaching of literature
•  Each category is described via an interpretive essay; links are imbedded in the text
•  Layout of site is exceptional and cited links are among the best for literature and literary criticism


Literary Movements

•  Sponsored by Donna M. Campbell, Department of English, Gonzaga University
•  Most significant feature of this site is its links to over 20 American literary movements, including Naturalism, Slave Narratives, Transcendentalism, etc.
•  Information includes genre techniques and characteristics and author data
•  Also provides links to American authors, a timeline and American literature sites


Literary Resources on the Net

•  Created and maintained by Jack Lynch, Rutgers University
•  This site is a "...collection of links to sites on the Internet dealing especially with English and American literature, excluding most single electronic texts"
•  Sites are well-chosen for their applicability to academic research and most are accompanied by short annotations
•  Links also provide access to 16 other topical sites, including classical & biblical, theater & drama, theory, women's literature & feminism, ethnicities, other national literatures
•  This is one of the most popular literature websites, due in large part to frequent updating and revision


Literature from Many Countries

•  Sponsored by WESSWEB, Association of College and Research Libraries
•  Selects the most comprehensive sites for national literatures
•  Although Australia, Canada and New Zealand are represented, links to other national literatures are non-English


Online Literary Criticism Collection

•  Sponsored by Internet Public Library (IPL)
•  Contains over 4,000 critical and biographical websites about authors and their works
•  Scope is basically for British and American literature since 1500 (although there are some links to other European and world literatures)
•  Excellent annotations accompany most links
•  Accessed by browsing author, title, nationality or literary period
•  Provides two documents, "Online Literary Criticism Guide" and "Pathfinder: Literary Criticism", for use by researchers who desire further guidance in exploring this subject
•  This is one of the best "litcrit" sites, due to its comprehensiveness, ease-of-use and instructional features


Project Gutenburg

•  This project, going strong since 1971, is the best site for accessing full-text literary classics
•  Site's goal is to make out-of-copyright books available for free downloading
•  Over 20,000 titles are available
•  Available via author or title
•  Gutenburg e-texts run the gamut from ancient to modern times, as well as world literature (although the majority are based on Western sources)


Voice of the Shuttle: Web Site for Humanities Research

•  Created and maintained by Professor Alan Liu, University of California, Santa Barbara
•  Because of its breadth and depth, this is the most comprehensive metasite for the humanities and social sciences
•  In addition to excellent links to "General Humanities Resources," there are extensive, well-organized topics, ranging from art, literature, performing arts and politics
•  "English Literature Main Page" links to English and American literature, minority literature, other literatures written in English, literature by genre, theory, and creative writing
•  Within these sub-groups, links are extensive and are often accompanied by annotations
•  Cross-referenced
•  For both the novice and the experienced researcher, this is the place to start


Websites discussed on this page are for informational purposes only. Johnson & Wales University Library is not responsible for the accuracy, content, or stability of any websites linked to this page.

Compiled by Rick Keogh, 8/99; updated 1/04; links last checked 1/08

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