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Harlem Renaissance: Find Literary Criticism in Holman Library

This guide is for students researching the Harlem Renaissance for English 126.

What is Literary Criticism?

  • LITERARY CRITICISM IS analysis, interpretation and evaluation of authors and their works of literature, which can include novels, short stories, essays, plays and poetry. 

  • Such critical analysis is often written by literary critics and is found in essays, articles and books.

  • Literary "criticism" is not necessarily negative; "criticism" means a thoughtful critique of an author's work or an author's style in order to better understand the meaning, symbolism or influences of a particular piece or a body of literature.

Multidisciplinary Article Databases

Search for the full text of scholarly (and non-scholarly) literary criticism in three Holman LIbrary multidisciplinary article databases.

These databases contain reviews, news and scholarly content. Be sure to select the appropriate limiters.

Background Info in REFERENCE BOOKS

Reference books you can use in the library or photocopy or scan

  • look in the back of the book at the index.
  • the index will quickly tell you the page numbers where your topic is located

Literary Criticism Database

To search Gale Literature:

Use relevant keywords to find resources on your topic, for example: 

Topics/ Ideas Authors Works
"Harlem Renaissance" "Jean Toomer" Passing
"New Negro Movement" "Langston Hughes" "Home to Harlem"
"African American Literature" "Zora Neale Hurston" "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

 

Under Limit Results, you can search for articles within a particular collection. This is a useful tool for finding the most relevant articles.

  • At By Product/Series:

  • Click on the small drop-down arrow at All Electronic Resources

  • Uncheck the box All Electronic Resources

  • Check the box next to the collection you want.

  • Step 1: Use Literature Resource Center for more introductory information, such as interviews, biographies, work overviews, reviews, etc. At by Content Type, select specific resource types, such as Topic and Work Overviews, Biographies, etc.

 

  • Step 2: Use the Electronic Resources Collections Contemporary Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticsm, Drama Criticism, Shakesearean Criticism, etc. to get some full-text and some excerpts of key scholarly literary criticism on literary works and authors.

 

  • This is a great way to get a sense of the literary conversation on a work.

  • Step 3: For scholarly literary criticism, you can also search only for peer reviewed (scholarly) articles on your text. Limit to full-text and peer reviewed:

  • Look for the full-text of articles in other library databases. If we don't have it, borrow it through InterLibrary Loan!

 

The RED (and brown and purple) BOOKS

You can get a sense of the scholarly conversation in print, with the red, brown, and purple books:

Use the Gale Literary Index to search the contents of these series. Remember, this index does not include full-text articles. You have to go to the print collection to read the articles.

Use the Author Index at the back of each volume to see criticism across volumes and series.

Search the Cumulative Title Index (separate, small, slick volume on the shelf) for your short story's title to see all criticism within that particular series.

Series of interest: