English 104.01: Imagining Homelands

Biographical Background

To find biographical information about your author, begin with a reference work. Reference books and databases are great starting points for research because they give basic facts (date and place of birth, a bibliography of the author's works, etc.), overviews of topics and themes, and important contextual details. The following should give you an introduction to your subject's life and suggest avenues for further research.

Contemporary Authors (Index Table PN771 .C5921)

  • The Contemporary Authors series is a set of bio-bibliographical guides to writers of fiction, poetry, journalism, drama, film, and more. Each entry includes a biographical sketch, a bibliography of the author's works, and an essay that includes information about critical assessments of and engagements with these works. You'll also find a selection of biographical and critical sources listed for further reading.
  • To use Contemporary Authors, consult the most recent Cumulative Index from the New Revision (Index Table PN771 .C5921 Index v. 1-162). For each author, there is a list of references; CANR refers to Contemporary Authors New Revision, CA is Contemporary Authors, and DLB is Dictionary of Literary Biography, another useful series. The number after each abbreviation is the volume number; entries within each volume are alphabetical by the author's last name.
  • Volumes in the Dictionary of Literary Biography series are shelved in the reference collection. If your author appears in one of these volumes, search by title in CONSORT for "dictionary of literary biography v" followed by the volume number given in the citation.

Literary Reference Center is a comprehensive database that provides information on thousands of authors and their works. LRC includes plot summaries, articles of literary criticism, full text of literary journals, author biographies, book reviews, author interviews, and images of key literary figures. LRC also includes the full text of selected classic and contemporary poems and short stories.

Literary Encyclopedia is a global literary reference work written by over 1500 specialists from universities around the world that provides over 4000 authoritative profiles of authors, works and literary and historical topics.

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2 volumes, REF PR9080 .A52 E53 1994)

Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (REF PR9205 .A52 F54 1986)

Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature 1900-2003 (REF PQ7081 .A1 E558 2004)

Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Writers (from the Dictionary of Literary Biography series, 3 volumes, REF PR9205 .A52 T893)

South Asian Writers in English (from the Dictionary of Literary Biography series, REF PR9570 .S642 S68 2006)

Historical and Cultural Background

Reference works can also give you the historical and cultural background you'll need to situate your author's life and works within his or her particular postcolonial context.

CIA World Factbook: If you're looking for a quick overview of your writer's homeland, the World Factbook can provide you with a map, a brief history, and information about demographics and politics.

Post-Colonial Studies: The Essential Glossary (REF JV22 .T45 2003)

A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Thought in English (REF PR9080 .A52 H57 2005)

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures (3 volumes, REF F1407 .E515 2000)

Encyclopedia of India (4 volumes, REF DS405 .E556 2006)

Historical Dictionary of Zimbabwe (REF DT2925 .R83 2001)

Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History (REF DT29 .E53 2003)

Encyclopedia of African History (3 volumes, REF DT20 .E53 2005)

Finding Books

Use CONSORT, the shared catalog of Kenyon, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, and Wooster, to find relevant books. If you're having trouble finding an item in the library, check out How to Read a Call Number.

An author search will locate books, poems, plays, etc. by a particular author: walcott, derek

A title search will locate a specific work by an author: midnight's children

Keyword searches:

  • Find works (such as poems or stories) that appear in collections or anthologies
  • Find literary criticism about a particular work
  • Find criticism related to themes, ideas, and topics in an author's works:
    • rushdie and nation*
      • the asterisk is a truncation symbol: this search will find "nation," "nations," "nationality," "nationalism," etc.

When searching for literary criticism, consider using subject headings for more precise results. If a keyword search leads to a book that seems promising, click on the subject heading links at the bottom of the record to see similar items. You can also select "subject heading" in the "search by" box and try the following:

You can also search the OhioLINK catalog, which contains the holdings of 85 academic and public libraries across Ohio.

Finding Articles

The CONSORT and OhioLINK catalogs do not contain information about individual articles published in journals. However, if you have a citation to a journal article--the author's name, the title of the article, the title of the journal, and the date or volume/issue number--you can search by journal title in CONSORT to determine if the library has the journal in print, electronically, or in microfilm.

To search for articles on your topic, use an index or database. In many cases, you can get the full text of the article by following a link from the database. If you're searching in an index without links to full-text articles, you'll need to search by journal title in CONSORT as described above.

The search process will vary for each resource, but here are a few tips to keep in mind:

 

Come up with good keywords.

Consider synonyms, alternate spellings, and other ways to approach your topic.

 

Look for subject headings.

Most databases will include their own subject headings. When you find a relevant article, click on a subject heading, or refine your search to include both a subject heading and keywords, to find similar articles.

 

Set reasonable limits.

Some databases will let you limit your search--examples of limits include choosing to search just peer-reviewed (scholarly) journals, or just book reviews, or just articles published in English. Sometimes limits are helpful; if you don't want book reviews or articles written in a language you don't read, it doesn't hurt to limit your search accordingly. But be careful not to impose too many limits, especially if you're just beginning your research--extremely narrow searches will rarely lead you to "the perfect article."

 

Use bibliographies.

If you do happen to find the perfect article (or a great essay in a reference work, or a relevant book on your topic), check out the bibliography, and then search for some of these sources.

 

Modern Languages Association Bibliography (MLA)
Recommended starting point. Index of scholarly work in literature, linguistics, and folklore with citations and linked full-text sources. Includes journal and book articles, dissertations, monographs, and series.

JSTOR
Provides access to the full content of a variety of scholarly journals. Coverage generally begins with volume one of a journal, and ends 2-5 years before the current year. Journals may be browsed or searched.

OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center: Arts and Humanities Journals
Includes the full text of approximately 40 arts and humanities journals.

ABELL-- Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
ABELL provides citations to monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world.

Humanities International Complete
A database covering 1700 journals, as well as books and reference sources in the humanities. Provides citation information for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems and fiction.

Academic Search Complete
Contains more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals, in the humanities and social sciences, as well as computer science, engineering, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

Requesting from Other Libraries

If Kenyon doesn't have a copy of the book or article you need, you can request it from another CONSORT library or OhioLINK. You can also use WorldCat to search libraries worldwide and make an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request.

Writing and Presentation Resources

  • MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Info Desk LB2369 .G53 2003)