GSU Library Research Guides: ENGL 2131 American Literature: Recommended Databases

Recommended Journal

Early American Literature
E-resource requires GSU Username and password.

Peer-reviewed journal articles focusing on American literature before 1830, including Native American and colonial writing. This search includes articles from 1973 (excluding some very recent articles). For articles from 1968 to 1973, see JSTOR.

GALILEO Literary Criticism Databases

My favorite place to start literature research is the "For Students" series, accessible through Artemis or GVRL. It's a small collection, so if your work isn't listed, just move on to Blooms or Literature Resource Center, but if your work or author is in here, you've got a gold mine of introductory information including author biography, an overview of the work, themes, historical background, and some criticism.

Video on the "For Students" series

Artemis combines searches for Literature Resource Center, GVRL Literature Sources, and our newest literature collection, Literature Criticism Online. To access articles from the For Students series, search for the name of your work, then scroll down to see the search limiters for "Publication Title." Choose the appropriate "For Students" work from that list. Asks for your iCollege username and password.

You can also search each of the databases in Artemis individually:

Gale Virtual Reference Library contains terrific sources for literature, history, and other topics.Asks for your iCollege username and password.

Gale Virtual Reference Library tutorial (from the Gale company)

Literature Resource Center is focused on literary criticism and biography and contains many full-text articles. Asks for your iCollege username and password.

Literature Resource Center tutorial

Literature Criticism Online offers criticism and biographies for a wide range of literary figures.

Bloom's Literature. My next favorite stop in literature research - easy access, highly-quality information. This is an excellent source for author biographies, themes, movements, and criticism. Harold Bloom's essays examining the lives and works of great writers. Asks for your iCollege username and password.

Tips for using Bloom's from the publisher

Literary Reference Center can be searched at the same time as Academic Search Complete, below. It offers literary criticism and the content may overlap with Literature Resource Center. Asks for the GALILEO password.

Academic Search Complete is a multi-disciplinary full-text database. Good for any topic, including literature and history. Asks for the GALILEO password.

Academic Search Complete tutorial

JSTOR has scholarly, full-text articles, including literary journals. Be aware that all articles in JSTOR are at least one year old. PROTIP: try searching the Early American Literature journal in this database. Asks for your iCollege username and password.

JSTOR tutorial

Films on Demand is an excellent resource for informative videos about many different topics. Pay attention to the films listed under English and Language Arts to find videos on authors as well as on literary movements and genres such as captivity narratives, slave narratives, autobiographies, essays, and epistolary novels. Asks for the GALILEO password.

MLA International Bibliography has all literature-related, scholarly articles. Be aware that many articles are not full-text.

MLA International Bibliography tutorial

ENGL 2131 American Literature: Recommended Databases

Recommended Journal

GALILEO Literary Criticism Databases

Library Information