Research Guide: Introduction to Fiction


| Reference Books | CONSULS Catalog | Online Databases | Locating Periodicals | Interlibrary Loan | Questions? |


For tips on citation format, please see Diana Hacker's Humanities: Documenting Sources (bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e) or MLA Style courtesy of OWL: Purdue Online Writing Lab (owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/).


Reference Books for Background Information

Reference books are shelved by Library of Congress call number in the reference stacks on the first floor of the Ruth Haas Library. They may not be checked out, but photocopiers are available for student use on the first and third floors of the Haas Library.

General Background on Literature

*The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature. 4 volumes.Ref PS 21.E537 2004
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Third edition.Ref PR 85.C29 2006
Encyclopedia of American Indian LiteratureRef PR 153.I52.E53 2007
Encyclopedia of Asian-American LiteratureRef PR 153.A84.O37 2007
Feminist Companion to Literature in EnglishRef PR 111.B57 1990
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. 5 volumes.Ref PS 153.N5.G73 2005
Hispanic Literature of the United States: A Comprehensive ReferenceRef PR 153.H56.K36 2003
The Oxford Companion to African American LiteratureRef PS 153.N5.O96 1997
The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Sixth edition.Ref PS 21.H3 1995
The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Sixth edition.Ref PR 19.O94 2006

Literary Criticism

*Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Second revised edition. 7 volumes.Ref PN 3321.C7 2001
*Short Story Criticism (SSC) (use indexes at end of most recent volume)Ref PN 3373.S386
Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) (writers now living or who died after 1959)Ref PN 771.C59
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) (writers who died 1900-1959)Ref PN 771.G27
Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism (NCLC) (writers who died 1800-1899)Ref PN 761.N5
Black Literature Criticism (BLC) (use author index at end of last volume)Ref PS 153.N5.B556
Hispanic Literature Criticism (HLC) (use index at end of last volume)Ref PQ 7081.A1.H573 1994

Literary Terminology

Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms (Quinn)Ref PN 44.5.Q56 1999
Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs. 2 volumes.Ref PN 43.D48 1988
Glossary of Literary Terms. 5th edition.Ref PN 41.A184 1988
New Handbook of Literary Terms (Mikics)Ref PN 41.M48 2007
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Baldick)Ref PN 41.C67 2008
Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (Cuddon/Preston)Ref PN 41.C83 1999

Symbols, Allusions, and Metaphors

Allusions: Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic DictionaryRef PN 43.A4 1982
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 15th edition.Ref PN 43.B65 1995
Common Knowledge: A Reader's Guide to Literary AllusionsRef PN 43.G68 1987
Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English LiteratureRef PR 149.B5.D53 1992
Dictionary of Literary Symbols (Ferber)Ref PN 56.S9.F47 1999
Facts on File Dictionary of Classical, Biblical, and Literary AllusionsRef PN 43.L37 1987
Metaphors DictionaryRef PE 1689.M47 1995
Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and FableRef PN 43.O94 2000
Thesaurus of Traditional English MetaphorsRef PE 1689.W56 1993

Background on Critical Theory

Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and TheoryRef PN 41.H36 1992
Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms. Revised and enlarged edition.Ref PN 41.D4794 1987
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, TermsRef PN 81.E43 1993
Enyclopedia of Literature and CriticismRef PN 81.E53 1991
Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory Ref PN 44.5.H37 1992
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Second edition.
Also available online in CONSULS.
Ref PN 81.J554 2005

Biographical Sources

Dictionary of Literary Biography (use author index at end of most recent volume)Ref PS 21.D5
American Writers. 4 volumes + 4 supplements.Ref PS 129.A55
African American WritersRef PS 153.N5.A344 1990
African-American Writers: A DictionaryRef PS 153.N5.A3444 2000
Asian American Short Story Writers: An A-to-Z GuideRef PS 153.A84.A828 2003
Contemporary Black Biography. 6 volumes.Ref E 185.96.C66 1992
American Women Writers. Second edition. 4 volumes.Ref PS 149.A42 2000
Modern American Women WritersRef PS 151.M54 1990
Latin American Writers. 3 volumes.Ref PQ 7081.A1.L37 1989
Latino and Latina Writers. 2 volumes.Ref PR PS 153.H56.L39 2004

Specific Writers & Movements

Critical Companion to Edgar Allan PoeRef PS 2630.S68 2007
Edgar Allan Poe A to ZRef PS 2630.S68 2001
Edith Wharton A to ZRef PS 3545.H16.Z459 1988
The Kate Chopin CompanionRef PS 1294.C63.B6 1988
The Poe EncyclopediaRef PS 2630.P58 1997

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CONSULS Online Catalog for Books and Media

CONSULS catalog workstations are located in the Reference Area on the first floor, and on each of the other floors of the Haas Library. You may logon to CONSULS via the WCSU Libraries Homepage at library.wcsu.edu or directly at www.consuls.org. For more detailed instructions on searching, please see the yellow CONSULS flyer on the display rack on the first floor.

Please Note: CONSULS ignores upper and lower case, and you may omit punctuation, except the hyphen which must be replaced by a space.

TO FIND WORKS WRITTEN BY A SPECIFIC AUTHOR:

Select Author at the CONSULS Main Menu, then type the writer's name last-name-first. Correct spelling is important.

Example: jackson shirley ann (press RETURN or ENTER)
Or just: jackson shir (press RETURN)

To limit search results to items owned by WCSU, click the Limit/Sort option, then select WCSU under "Where Item Is Located."

TO FIND WORKS WRITTEN ABOUT A SPECIFIC WRITER:

Select Subject at the CONSULS Main Menu, then type the writer's name last-name-first. Correct spelling is important. To limit results to items owned by WCSU, click Limit/Sort and then select WCSU under "Where Item Is Located."

Example: hawthorne nathaniel (press RETURN or ENTER)
Or just: hawthorne na (press RETURN)

CONSULS will retrieve at list of Library of Congress Subject Headings which begin with the words you typed:

Hawthorne Nathaniel (main heading is subdivided)
Hawthorne Nathaniel 1804 1864--Biography
Hawthorne Nathaniel 1804 1864--Criticism and interpretation
Hawthorne Nathaniel 1804 1864--Influence
Hawthorne Nathaniel 1804 1864--Political and social views

PLEASE NOTE: Personal name headings may also be subdivided by the titles of individual works, for example:

Hawthorne Nathaniel--Rappaccini's Daughter

TO FIND WORKS WITH A SPECIFIC TITLE:

Select Title at the CONSULS Main Menu, then type as much of the title as you remember in correct word order. In CONSULS, you may omit "a," "an," or "the" at the beginning of a title.

Example: cambridge companion to kate chopin (press RETURN or ENTER)

If your TITLE search does not retrieve an entry for a separately published edition of the work, select Words from the prompt line to re-execute the search as a keywords search (example: desirees baby and press RETURN). Then scan the CONTENTS field of each entry for the title of the work you need.

TO FIND INFORMATION ABOUT A SPECIFIC TOPIC BY SUBJECT HEADING:

Select Subject at the CONSULS Main Menu, then type the Library of Congress subject heading which best describes your topic. Correct spelling and word order are important. The complete list of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) is published in a set of big red books available in the Reference Area on the first floor of the Haas Library.

Type: Short stories, American--History and criticism (press RETURN or ENTER)
Or just: short stories american (press RETURN)

TO FIND INFORMATION ABOUT A SPECIFIC TOPIC BY KEYWORD(S):

Select Keyword(s) at the CONSULS Main Menu, then type the key WORDS which best describe your topic, in any order.

Example: shirley jackson and lottery press RETURN
Narrower: jackson and lottery and (symbol* or imag*) press RETURN

Example: hawthorne and young goodman brown press RETURN
Narrower: young goodman brown and (dark* or shadow* or night*) press RETURN

Example: kate chopin and desirees baby press RETURN
Narrower: chopin and (race or racial or gender) and desirees baby press RETURN

Use the * (asterisk) as a truncation symbol to retrieve variant forms of a word root. Use the Boolean OR to expand your search by including synonyms and related terms. When using two different Boolean commands in the same search statement ("and" and "or" in the preceding examples) you must include parentheses to indicate which command is to be performed first.

TO REQUEST MATERIALS FROM THE OTHER CSU LIBRARIES:

If the item you need is owned by one of the other CSU Libraries (CCSU, SCSU, or ECSU) but not by WCSU, or if WCSU's copy is checked out, you may order the item electronically via Inter-Campus Loan by clicking on Request at the full record display in CONSULS. Then type your University network username and password OR your University ID number and library PIN. Be sure to specify a pickup location (Haas or Young Library) before clicking on the gray bar to initiate your request. If you need assistance with your library PIN, please contact the Circulation Desk at (203) 837-9100.

There is a limit of ten (10) Inter-Campus Loan requests per person. Videos are available via Inter-Campus Loan. Please allow 4-5 days for delivery to the Haas Circulation Desk. Items borrowed via Inter-Campus Loan may be renewed for an additional borrowing period if no one else has placed a HOLD on the item.

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Online Databases for Finding Periodical Articles

Academic Search Premier in EBSCOhost
Coverage: 1990 - present (earlier for many publications)
Location: Under Articles & Databases: Most Popular at the WCSU Libraries Homepage.
Scope: Indexes approximately 8,000 newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals in most fields, including language and literature, with 4,000 available in full-text.
JSTOR
Coverage: Issue number one to within 2-5 years of present
Location: Under Articles & Databases: Most Popular on the WCSU Libraries Homepage.
Scope: Full-text of over 500 core scholarly journals in more than 25 disciplines, including language and literature (complete backfiles).
MLA International Bibliography
Coverage: 1963 - present
Location: Under Articles & Databases: A-Z at the WCSU Libraries Homepage.
Scope: Indexes books, book articles, journal articles, and Ph.D. dissertations in literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. Some linked full-text. No abstracts.

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Locating Periodicals in the Haas Library

To find out if WCSU subscribes to a specific periodical in print or online:

1. Select Journal Title at the CONSULS main menu, then type the name of the periodical (example: studies in short fiction) and press RETURN. If a title list appears on the screen, select the desired title, then look inside the box to find WCSU holdings. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to see if WCSU owns backfiles on microfilm or microfiche.

2. To find out if a given periodical is available in full-text in one or more of WCSU's online databases, use the A-to-Z Journal Title Locator available under Articles & Databases on the WCSU Libraries Homepage (library.wcsu.edu).


How to Use Interlibrary Loan

If the CSU Libraries do not own the book you need, or if WCSU does not subscribe to the periodical you need, you may request delivery of the item via Interlibrary Loan using the online ILLiad system available at: libguides.wcsu.edu/ill.

There is a limit of 5 Interlibrary Loan requests per person per day. Videos are not available via Interlibrary Loan. Under most circumstances, Interlibrary Loan is a free service, but please allow at least ten working days for delivery. You will be notified as soon as the material arrives. Faster document delivery service is available for a reasonable fee. Please see the librarian at the Reference Desk or call the Interlibrary Loan Desk at (203) 837-9114 for more information.


Do You Have a Question?

The Reference Desk on the first floor of the Haas Library is staffed by a professional librarian who is trained to assist in your research, or you may contact Joan Reitz, Instruction Librarian, at 837-8308 or reitzj@wcsu.edu. My office is located in Room 402 on the fourth floor of the Haas Library (near the glass elevator).

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Please send your comments to Joan Reitz, Haas Instruction Librarian, Western Connecticut State University.
reitzj@wcsu.edu
Last updated on July 25, 2011