English Literature - Selected Sources

Focuses on reference resources devoted to individual writers. Lists major bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, concordances and journals.

Available online at UofT Libraries.
An annual narrative bibliography which aims to cover all work of quality in English studies published in a given year. Individual volumes are broken into chapters, each covering a major topic within English studies (e.g., the Romantic period).

Biographical information on authors, their works and criticism. Entries: national literatures with different genres within these traditions.

Chronologically covers writers from the 14th century to the present day. Essays give short bios of the subject, survey of subject's principle writings, assessment of work as a whole and bibliographies.

Clear and coherent access to the historical roots, intellectual ferment and cultural range of British Romanticism .

Comprehensive, scholarly and critical overview of literature and theory including individual titles covering key literary genres, periods and sub-disciplines.

Entries include genres, major subjects (e.g., writing of the Canadian north) and critical bios of writers. Entries for regionsprovide context.

Entries on individual authors include biographical data, a bibliography including all the entrant's separately published works and a list of critical studies, and a signed critical essay on the entrant's work. Second part of the work contains short essays on key works.

This book defines and discusses terms, critical theories, and points of view commonly applied in classifying, analyzing, interpreting and writing the history of works of literature.” (from the Preface)

A listing of literary terms that are defined and explained. References are provided for the more difficult or important ones. In addition,, the “Outline of Literary History” that follows chartsthe most important events in the history of English literature.

Covers major literary theorists, providing lists of their principal works of criticism, short essays providing overviews of their work, and bibliographies of works that address their theories.

Annual narrative bibliography that provides comprehensive cover of all work of quality in critical and cultural theory published in a given year. Volumes are broken into chapters, each covering major topics within critical/cultural theory (e.g., postcolonial theory).

Essay-length entries providing information on theorists' lives, their influence, and major works. Movements/concepts have entries.

Entries with definitions and descriptions for terminology used in literary discourse. Examples further clarify the meaning of the term.

Available Online.
Illustrated biographical dictionary of people of distinction in the British Isles and colonies, 4th century to the year 2000. Includes those who shaped history in the British Isles and beyond; people in public life (politics, government, the law, the church, the army and the navy). Covers scholarship, literature, art and architecture, music, science and medicine, education and philanthropy. Online as well.

"(C)ollection of writings on almost 600 novelists and novels that emerged during arguably the most deamatic and transformative period in world literature."

Entries include a biography, a complete list of separately published books, and a signed essay. In many cases, a brief personal essay by the entrant commenting on his/her work is included. Critical works on the entrant are also listed.

Foreword by Neil Gaiman

This volume offers a new look at the world of the Gothic, from its origins in the eighteenth century to its reemergence today. Each short essay is dedicated to a single text – a novel, a film, a comic book series, a festival – that serves as a lens to explore the genre.

Contains theoretical, technical and semiotic terms and concepts (examples from international plays — classic and contemporary)

Vol. 1: Old-English - Medieval (Nancy C. Martinez & Joseph G.R. Martinez)
Vol. 2: Renaissance (Nancy C. Martinez & Joseph G.R. Martinez)
Vol. 3: Restoration - Romantic (Nancy C. Martinez, Joseph G.R. Martinez & Erland Anderson)
Vol. 4: Victorian - Contemporary (Nancy C. Martinez, Joseph G.R. Martinez & Erland Anderson)

Series covers a selection of major dramatists, novelists and poets, with each book in series devoted to a single writer. To retrieve titles in the series, click on “starting with (radio button)” “series (pull down menu)”; key in “blooms major dramatists” (or novelists or poets) in the U of T catalogue.

Individuals works in series cover specific genres (e.g., The Victorian Novel), specific time periodis (e.g., English literature, 1815-1832) or particular figures (e.g., Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century). To retrieve titles in the series, title for ‘oxford history of english literature’ in the U of T catalogue.