Literary Criticism/Book Review Research Guide   Tags: authors, book reviews, criticism, literary criticism, literature, reviews  

Literary criticism is the term given to studies that define, classify, analyze, interpret, and evaluate works of literature. There are many types of literary criticism: some examples include historical criticism, textual criticism, feminist criticism, and formalist criticism. Literary criticism may examine a particular literary work or it may look at an author's writings as a whole

Finding Articles with Literary Criticism

 Literary criticism can be published as journal articles or full-length books. In general, it is the peer-reviewed work of scholars who discuss a particular text or texts, including fiction, poetry, plays, films, and other works. A work of literary criticism differs from a book review in that it is typically a more in-depth critique of a work, and it's most often intended for an academic audience.

Search terms for finding literary criticism may include the title of the work (for example, Anna Karenina), author's name (Tolstoy), and themes (religious crisis)

Best Starting Points are searching databases like MLA under the "find articles" tab

Finding Books with Literary Criticism

Try a Keyword search in the Consuls catalog for the author's name (last, first) For these book-length studies, the author's name will be the main subject heading, and the subheading is "criticism and interpretation." (An author search for an author's name will bring up books by the author, not about him or her.) Use Author's name and criticism or interpretation to find results. (for example, Austen, Jane and criticism)

You might also check to see if a bibliography has been published on the author you're researching. To search the catalog for these, try the author's name and "bibliography" as a keyword search. Example: faulkner bibliography