Literature Research Guide: Reference Sources

Be a good boy, remember; and be kind to animals and birds, and read all you can.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) English novelist and poet

• An Author - The Mark Twain Encyclopedia
• Combination (Period & Regional) - Antebellum Writers in New York and the South
• Genre - Mystery and Suspense Writers
• Literary Characters - Major Characters in American Fiction
• Literary Terms - The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
• National Literature - The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature
• Period Literature - Sixteenth-century British Nondramatic Writers
• Regional - Dictionary of Midwestern Literature
• Specialized Dictionaries - Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

Reference Sources, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, etc., can be useful in the following ways:

• to get an overview of your subject

• for in-depth, authoritative articles on your topic

• to identify essential readings in the field

• to clarify terms or concepts that you are
less familiar with

• to identify keywords for use in your search
for material

• to point you in the direction of more information

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

British Library - Discovering Literature: Romantic & Victorian

Dictionary of Symbolism

​#Ownvoices: Kids and Teen Books by Indigenous Authors & Illustrators

Literature & Culture of the American 1950s

Late 20th Century Japanese Writers: Tanizaki, Mishima and Oe

Victorian Web

In Mountlink, do a subject keyword search for:

Literature AND dictionaries

                   OR

Literature AND encyclopedias

Explore for literature and much more!