Research Guides: LIT 3350: Shakespeare: Finding Literary Criticism in Articles

Finding Literary Criticism of Shakespeare's Works in Articles

For literary criticism articles on Shakespeare's works, search these literature databases:

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Contains research on all aspects of literature and languages. Source types include articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations. Subjects covered include literary criticism, literary theory, modern languages, linguistics, rhetoric, drama, film, folklore, radio, and television. It covers literature from all over the world.
MLA International Bibliography provides a classified listing and subject index for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Annually, it indexes more than 45,000 books and articles from more that 4,400 periodicals and 1,000 book publishers. Coverage includes works about literature that is transmitted orally, in print, or in audiovisual media and about human language, including both natural languages and invented languages (e.g., Esperanto). Inclusions must be of scholarly interest; no apprentice or simplified works are included.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is an interdisciplinary archive of over one thousand leading academic journals from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work.
JSTOR is an interdisciplinary archive of over one thousand leading academic journals from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. It is full-text searchable and includes images. There are embargos of between 3-5 years for most journal titles. Journals are always included from volume 1, issue 1.

Shakespeare: JSTOR Understanding Series
This research tool from JSTOR that connects primary texts with journal articles and book chapters on JSTOR that cite those texts. Includes all Shakespeare plays and sonnets. This will be helpful for your explication essay!

As well as these humanities or multidisciplinary databases:

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary articles that are mostly peer-reviewed.
Academic Search Complete, designed specifically for academic institutions, is the world's most comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for Amore than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) This link opens in a new window
Contains articles in the arts and humanities from 1975 to present. Not full-text but often links to full-text articles in other databases. One of the Web of Science databases.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (ISI) is a multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It indexes over 1,100 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 7,000 major science and social science journals.

A&HCI also provides access to an article's cited references or the footnotes from an author's bibliography. Cited items may be critical in nature or original creative works (novels, poems, works of philosophy, paintings, musical compositions, etc.).

Subject keywords: Archaeology. Architecture. Art. Asian Studies. Classics. Dance. Folklore. History. Language. Linguistics. Literary Reviews. Literature. Music. Philosophy. Poetry. Radio, Television, & Film. Religion. Theater.
Humanities Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Contains articles on humanities disciplines including archaeology, classical studies, art, performing arts, philosophy, history, music, linguistics, literature, and religion.
Humanities Abstracts provides detailed indexing for almost 700 periodicals covering the humanities of which 470 are peer-reviewed dating as far back as 1984, including feature articles, interviews, bibliographies, obituaries, and original works of fiction, drama, poetry and book reviews, as well as reviews of ballets, dance programs, motion pictures, musicals, radio and television programs, plays, operas, and more.
Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window
includes many of the most important academic journals in the humanities with topics covering classical studies, literary & social criticism, philosophy, religion & theology, literature, art, dance, film, folklore, music, performing arts, area studies, communications, gender studies, history, journalism, linguistics, archaeology
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides articles on humanities topics, including art, classical studies, dance, film, journalism, philosophy, and religion. Content also includes interviews, obituaries and original works of fiction, drama, poetry and reviews.
Humanities International Complete includes all the data from Humanities International Index (over 2,000 titles and 2 million records) and full text from more than 770 journals. The database includes citations and abstracts for articles, essays and reviews, books, and other humanities reference materials, as well as original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations. Humanities International Complete is a resource for students, researchers, and educators interested in all aspects of the humanities, with worldwide content pertaining to literary, scholarly and creative thought.

Research Tips!

Keywords

Keywords or search terms are the building blocks of good searches in databases. Try combining a few relevant keywords when searching, such as:

Author's name - Shakespeare
Title of play or scene - Macbeth
Any additional elements, like a character's name or literary device - Lady Macbeth or Gender

Expand Your Search

If the databases listed above are too narrow in scope, try using search engines like OneSearch and Google Scholar to expand your search.