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ENG 3351: British Literature 19th Century - Present: How to Search for Literature

Effective Searching

Finding Books By and About Your Author, or About a Literary Work

You can search BearCat and the various databases I'm pointing you to most effectively consider what it is you need to locate:

I Need	Search Strategy
All the works my author wrote	Author search, last name first (Joyce, James)
Scholarly criticism about my author	Subject search, last name first (Joyce, James), and look through all the possibilities before diving into one
Biography of my author	Keyword search, author's name + biography (James Joyce biography) - don't add the + sign in the search
Scholarly criticism about a novel, play or long/famous poem by my author	Keyword search, "title of work" + criticism ("To the Lighthouse" criticism)
Short Story or shorter/less famous poem by my author	a) Keyword search, "title of work" + criticism ("The Good Morrow" criticism) b) for more recent or less know poems & short stories you may need to first find out the name of the larger collection and search for criticism on that collection. Ex.: Caribbean-British poet Kei Miller, whose poetry career formally started in 2006 with the publication of his collection Kingdom of Empty Bellies. You might need to find reviews or criticisms of the whole collection. You can make an appointment with me and I'll be glad to walk you through how to find this out.
Scholarly criticism on a character or group	Keyword search for character name or group or author + criticism (women + Alexander Pope; "Satan" + Milton + criticism,
How a theme or literary device is used in an author/work	Keyword search for device/theme + work or author or genre (imagery + age + Shakespeare sonnets; alliteration + Beowulf; symbolism + Irish +Yeats)

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