LibGuides: English: Welcome

About this Guide

This Subject Guide brings together important research resources for English. These include article databases, major reference works, data sources, and other key information sources.

For further assistance, make an appointment with your Subject Librarian.

Key resources

Some great search tools to start searching for academic literature on your topic. Explore the Journals & Databases tab above in the navigation bar for even more database options.

Literature Online
Criticism and reference material, including articles, essays, biographies and also some literary works. Incorporating the ABELL : Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature. Database Guide.
Gale Literature
Access biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of more than 120,000 authors from every age and discipline.
MLA International Bibliography
Find scholarly books and articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Includes MLA's Directory of Periodicals. Database Guide.
Proquest Literature & Language
Combined search across several Proquest databases relevant to Language and Literature, including dissertations and theses.
JSTOR Understanding Shakespeare
Research Shakespeare’s plays using the Folger Shakespeare Library texts to quickly find scholarship written about them. Pick a play. Click a line. Instantly see articles from the JSTOR archive that reference the line. Truly such stuff as Shakespeare student's dreams are made on.

Literary Encyclopedia
A literary reference work of specially commissioned articles that address texts, authors, cultural movements and historical events around the world and from all literary periods.

Oxford Reference
Digital access to a range of Oxford University Press's reference titles, such as critical subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, companions and handbooks. A great place to start after / instead of Wikipedia.

These databases cover journals from several disciplines, including English Literature.

The article may be available in PDF or HTML. If the full-text of an article is not included, click on the Article Link button to check availability.

Academic OneFile
Peer-reviewed, full-text articles from journals and reference sources. Covers a range of subjects, including English literature.
JSTOR
Digitized journals, with coverage ranging from as early as 1665. You can limit by date range (e.g. 1837-1901 for the Victorian Era).
Periodicals Index Online: PIO
Multidisciplinary index to over 6,000 journals (with 850 literature journals). An excellent resource for finding primary sources, with complete runs of titles indexed (up to 1995). Database Guide.
Project MUSE
Complete, full-text access to over 400 high quality, peer-reviewed humanities and social sciences journals, from over 120 publishers, including many university presses and scholarly societies.

Google Scholar (off-campus access only) This link opens in a new window
JURN This link opens in a new window
A curated academic search-engine. Search millions of free academic articles, chapters, and theses.

These databases specialise in listing articles published in NZ publications. The full-text is not always available, but you can use the information in the citation/reference to track down a copy. Use Library Search | Ketu to see if we hold the journal/newspaper the article was published in, then browse by year, volume, issue, page number to find a copy of the article.

Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre
A full text collection including leading regional and international newspapers, magazines, journals, reference books, and biographies. Also includes photos, maps, flags & video.
findNZarticles
Provides access to New Zealand content, including material by or about New Zealanders, from a range of New Zealand newspapers and journals.
Index New Zealand
Indexes the content of NZ and Pacific newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. Useful for finding articles on contemporary NZ and Pacific authors, that may only be available in print. Search Library Search | Ketu for the Source title to find print holdings.

New Zealand Literature File This link opens in a new window
A selective list of New Zealand and Pacific authors' work and provides references to biographical and critical material.

Some of these more specialised databases may also be relevant for your research topic.

Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson
A fully searchable collection of Jonson's complete works (modern and annotated or old-spelling transcriptions) and some of the major manuscripts, along with essays, archives, a timeline, music scores, and hundreds of digital images. The interface enables on-screen comparison between versions.
International Medieval Bibliography (IMB)
Citations for works in all aspects of medieval studies from 450 to 1500 for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (classified by date, subject and location).
Iter Bibliography
Lists research on the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700), includes citations for books, journal articles, dissertation abstracts, essays in books, conference proceedings, festschriften, encyclopedias and exhibition catalogues.
Underground & Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels
Focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels, this database includes works of artists, alongside interviews, criticism, and journal articles documenting the continual growth and evolution of this artform.