Gale Literature has a range of information types and perspectives on literature. You can find author interviews, author and work overviews, reviews, critical biographies, and popular and scholarly literary criticism.
To search the database, use a range of strategies.
As shown in the image below, you can enter the author's name in Last name, First name format. Once you start typing in this advanced search box, this particular database will also autofill suggestions and add the formatting you see here.
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And then...
Limit by Content-Type to find specific kinds of sources.
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Use a library database to search for and find scholarly articles.
To find literary criticism type in relevant keywords.
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Scholarly criticism can take different forms and approach a text from many directions. For example, criticism from the academic journal The Explicator focuses on textual analysis. This is a good source to see how critics engage with a text from a range of perspectives.
The Explicator publishes concise criticism on passages of prose and poetry. "Each issue contains between 25 and 30 essays on works of literature, ranging from ancient Greek and Roman times to our own, from throughout the world."
In the excerpt below note how scholarly analysis represents a conversation of sorts between the story, the scholar, and other scholars. In the second paragraph opening quoted below, Nancy Tuten, author of this scholarly analysis, begins to argue that language in "Everyday Use" is about more than empowerment and giving voice. It is also about silencing and oppression.
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"Commentaries on Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" typically center on Mama's awakening to one daughter's superficiality and to the other's deep- seated understanding of heritage. Most readers agree that when Mama takes the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, she confirms her younger daughter's self-worth: metaphorically, she gives Maggie her voice. Elaine Hedges, for example, refers to the 'reconciliation scene' in which 'Mama's gift of the family quilts to Maggie empowers the previously silenced and victimized daughter' (356). The text underscores such a reading by stating that immediately after the incident Maggie sits with her 'mouth open' (58). This story is distinctive, however, in that Walker stresses not only the importance of language but also the destructive effects of its misuse." Excerpt from: Tuten, Nancy. "Alice Walker's Everyday Use." Explicator 51.2 (1993): 125. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. |
Search by story or author name to find books that contain criticism.
Try adding the search term: Criticism or the subject term: Criticism and Interpretation.
A new screen will open with your search results. This will be a list from the library's catalog.