Literary Criticism:

What is Literary Criticism?   From Joyce Valenza at Springfield Township High School

Why is literary criticism worth studying?  Read this article by Steven Hale, Georgia Perimeter College.

Books

Search the library catalog using the name of your author (last name, first name) as a SUBJECT.

For your junior paper you may checkout one book at a time for two weeks.

Reference Materials

PHS Library has many reference books that have collections of criticisms.  To use these you will need to look up your author in the index or table of contents of each set.  We have started a Junior Paper Reference Books wiki to make finding this material. 

Databases

We have two subscription resources for literary criticism; Gale and EBSCO.

Gale 

Powersearch across multiple databases at once. Narrow down your results by looking at the Subject headings or doing an Advanced Search with boolean logic.

The one database you cannot powersearch that will be especially helpful in your quest for literary criticism is Gale's Contemporary Literary Criticism Select.  This is a terrific resource, if your author is included.  The scope of this database as described by Gale is "the works of novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and other creative writers now living or who died after January 1, 2000. Also included are 100 retrospective authors (such as Sinclair and Hemingway). Once logged into Gale click on the title of the database at the bottom of the screen.  Once you are into the database, search by your author's name or the title of the junior book.

Gale Index to Literary Criticism  This is an index by author and title to reference material.  Some we have some we do not, but can borrow.  Search for your author and then check the catalog to see if we have the book the index refers to. Most will be located in the reference room.  If we do not own a title you would like an article from, copy down the title, volume and page numbers and give it to Ms. Powell or email her, kpowell@powayusd.com with the information. We will try to provide the document via interlibrary loan.

EBSCO's Literary Reference Center

Completely fulltext and includes literary criticism, interviews, reviews, biographies and reference books.

Public Library Databases

The public libraries have additional resources that are particularly useful for this assignment.  To access these resources you will need a public library card.  If you do not have one, please see Ms. Powell and she can assist you in accessing while on campus.

San Diego City Libraries  (closest is Rancho Bernardo or Carmel Mountain, 01336 barcode)

• Literature Resource Center

Internet Resources

The following are some suggested web resources for literary criticism.  Please feel free to let us know of any others you would recommend for this list.

• Literary Criticism Collection (Internet Public Library) http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/ 
• Literary History http://www.literaryhistory.com/  (by Donna Pridmore, Brown University)
• Voice of the Shuttle Literary Criticism (UCSB) http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=3
• Literary Resources on the Web (by Jack Lynch, Rutgers University) http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/%7Ejlynch/Lit/
• PAL: Perspectives in American Literature (by Paul Rueben, CSUS) http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/table.html
• LitLInks (Bedford/St. Martins) http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/Pages/Main.aspx

Cormier Criticisms from Children's Literature Review:

     Article 1CormierChildren'sLitRev.html     

     Article 2 CormierChildLitRev2.html

    Criticism on Heroes from:

    Campbell, Patty. Robert Cormier: Daring to Disturb the Universe. New York:
             Delacorte-Random, 2006. 183-93. Print.

"The Book of Unknown Americans"  critical review:

Castillo, Ana. "Americanos." The New York Times Book Review 6 July 2014: 8(L). Gale Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

TheBookofUnknownAmericansNYTBR.html

       All author images borrowed from Wikipedia.

For questions or to add to this wiki please contact the PHS Library