Find Scholarly Articles

The databases below all contain scholarly criticism. Limit to scholarly peer-reviewed journals to find scholarly articles.  

Literary Criticism Database (with some film analysis)

One Search

Use the One Search link below to search for sources in all library databases at once. 

• Limit to Peer-reviewed Journals to find scholarly articles.  
• TIP: Refine your search to include sources that are not full text and request useful sources with Interlibrary Loan.
• Set useful limits by date, document type, etc.  

Multidisciplinary Databases

Sample Search:

The image below shows a search for the following terms: Identity AND "A Room of One's Own"

• In this particular database, the filters to limit to peer-reviewed journal articles are at the top of the page. In other databases, look to the sides of the screen to see the filters that you can use to narrow your search.
• Remember to try different keywords, subject terms, and multiple databases when searching.

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Set Google Scholar to your library

Add Holman Library to your Google Scholar settings and see when articles are available through GRC.

1. Open Google Scholar.
2. Click on the three bar menu.
3. Select Settings.
4. Select Library Links.
5. Type in Green River College.

Featured Journal

The Explicator provides brief, pee-reviewed, close Readings of texts

Scholarly Books

Books can be scholarly too! How can you tell? 

A scholarly book will: 

• Be written by an expert or experts in the field (PH.D., M.D., etc)
• Offer an original interpretation or discussion that brings new insight and knowledge to the field
• Offer sustained, sophisticated, and in-depth analysis and discussion
• Often be printed by a University Press
• Be written for an academic audience
• Include references to the other scholarly works the book is "in conversation" with

NOTE: While you can limit a search for articles to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals, you cannot do the same with books. Use the list above to assess if a book is scholarly. That's particularly easy to do with ebooks

Searching for books and ebooks

Holman Library has books on authors, literary movements, themes in literature, and more. Search for essay collections, as well as for works on a specific author, work of literature, or idea.

To find scholarly criticism, try adding the keyword: criticism or the subject term: literary criticism.

As always, try a range of search terms to find the best results for your purpose.

Searching Tips

Here is a scholarly electronic book found in the Holman Library catalog with the search terms:

"Langston Hughes" AND criticism

1. View the Book Record

Clues this is a scholarly work: This is an edited work by an academic press. The Subject is: Criticism and Interpretation. It includes a bibliography.

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2. Clues this is a scholarly work: The author(s) has academic credentials.

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3. Clues this is a scholarly work: The author engages substantively with the text and with the ideas of other scholars. 

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Uh oh? Not finding enough?

What to do when you cannot find much written about your story, author, or other Humanities text

When you do research on cultural texts and creators, particularly current texts/ creators, you may not find a lot written about them, particularly scholarly analysis. That's okay!

Scholarship represents your original thinking about a text or theme in literature or another cultural text. As part of your analysis you can integrate relevant ideas, even if they are not about your specific text. Think about:

• larger themes or issues, such as refugees, identity, nation, or colonialism (in my example below)
• other works by your author
• analysis of the work of another author or creator that you think is relevant to the work you are analyzing 
• a literary movement, genre, or body of work, such as Pakistani literature, Southeast Asian authors, music of the diaspora, post-colonial film
• a literary theory, such as queer theory, gender theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, psychoanalytic theory, etc.

• Below is an example of ideas and analysis about Minaret by Leila Aboulela. This might be a source to use if I were writing about the same ideas in a different work by the same or a different author. 

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Example: The highlighted sections of this article abstract (I would then read the whole article) might support an analysis of another novel or short story that explores how women navigate different spaces of religion, nation, and identity by claiming the veil as a symbol that simultaneously excludes them and allows them to define a new space.

Words to Consider

We use Keywords that capture what we want to find information about. 

Databases also organize information by Subject Terms. Look for and try relevant subject terms as you explore ideas and sources. 

Sample Subject Terms 

• Look for other terms relevant to your text
• Also please note that subject terms may use old fashioned and out of date terminology!

• Literary Criticism
• Criticism and Interpretation
• Criticism -- Political Aspects -- United States
• Criticism -- United States -- History - Twentieth Century
• Criticism and Interpretation
• Psychoanalysis and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• Psychological Fiction, American -- History and Criticism
• Television Criticism
• Literary Criticism/ Poetry
• Literature -- Black Authors -- History and Criticism
• Literary Criticism / American / African American 
• Feminist Literary Criticism
• Feminist Criticism
• Queer Literary Criticism
• Homosexuality in Literature 
• Art Criticism
• Film Criticism