Contemporary Literature: Voices of the Dispossessed

English 336

Select Library Resources

Researching Dispossessed Groups

Select Print Reference Sources

American Decades, Reference R 973.92 A512
American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation, Reference R 305.800973 A512i
Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America, Reference R 306.0973 B787
Countries and their Cultures, Reference R 306.03 C855
Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism, Reference R 306.4460973 E56
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, Reference R 305.8 G151
The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture, Reference R 306.40973 G816
Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies, Reference R 305.90664 R286
Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, Reference R 305.8003 W927

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Finding Other Resources

Use Illinet Online to find more items in the library. Some helpful subject headings include the following:

Physically handicapped (the older subject heading)
People with disabilities (newer subject heading)
Aged
Gays
Gay teenagers
Gay and lesbian studies
Asian Americans
Afro-Americans (the older subject heading; Negroes is older still)
African Americans (newer subject heading)
African Americans -- Social conditions
Islam
Teenagers
Indians of North America
Indigenous peoples
Generation X--United States
Migrant agricultural laborers
Poor
Punk culture
Rave culture
Slaves
Canon (Literature)
Jews -- United States

You can also search the holdings of other libraries listed in Illinet Online -- we are one of 56 libraries in the ILCSO system.

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Articles

Lexis-Nexis Academic
- Transcripts from National Public Radio programs such as "Fresh Air" and "All Things Considered"
- Also accesses newspapers from all over the world
Newspaper Source
- More transcripts from NPR
- Look for "special" segments on particular groups
- Also allows you to access international newspapers, which may provide articles with insights
Academic Search Elite
- Articles from popular sources like Time and Newsweek, as well as more scholarly sources that sociologists use
New York Times
- Accesses the full text of the New York Times, back to 1999
- Indexing back to 1990
- Includes the New York Times Magazine as well as the New York Times Book Review (which may be great for identifying works and authors)
- On campus only
- To access older articles, use ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times, which goes back to 1851

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Finding Representative Authors

Searching By Group

Use Illinet Online to find books and other media discussing authors of different dispossessed groups. Sometimes these works will contain bibliographies of works to examine; others will discuss issues pertaining to these groups.

Subject headings can make your search more specific. Some examples include:

American literature -- African American authors
Hispanic Americans in literature
Young adult literature, American
American literature -- Catholic authors
American literature -- Cuban American authors -- History and criticism
People with disabilities in literature
Aged men -- fiction
Women and literature
Poor in literature
American literature -- Jewish authors -- History and criticism
Judaism in literature
Jews in literature
Children in literature
Homosexuality and literature
Women authors
Child authors

Browse subject headings such as American Literature for appropriate subdivisions. To look up books about a particular author, you can do an easy subject search: simply type in their last name, a comma, and their first name (for example, Gaiman, Neil).

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Select Print Reference Resources

American Ethnic Writers, Reference R 810.992 A512
Asian American Literature: Reviews and Criticism of Works by American Writers of Asian Descent, Reference R 810.9895 A832a
Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults, Reference R 028.162 B365
The Beats: A Documentary Volume, Reference R 810.9 D554 v.237 ~ part of the vast Dictionary of Literary Biography series, which is also available electronically
The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature, Reference R 809.89287 B655
The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English, Reference R 820.99282 c178
The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People, Movements, and Motifs, Reference R 810.9975 C737
Encyclopedia of American War Literature, Reference R 810.9358 E56
Encyclopedia of German Literature, Reference R 830.9 E56
Latina and Latino Voices in Literature: Lives and Works, Reference R 810.9868 D273L 2003
Lesbian and Gay Voices: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Literature for Children and Young Adults, Reference R 810.809282 D273L
Literature of Developing Nations for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Literature of Developing Nations, Reference R 809.891724 L776
Modern Black Writers, 2nd ed., Reference R 809.8896 M689 2000
More Notes from a Different Drummer: A Guide to Juvenile Fiction Portraying the Disabled, Reference R 028.52 B315M
Native American Literatures: An Encyclopedia of Works, Characters, Authors, and Themes, Reference R 810.9897 W623n
Native American Women Writers, Reference R 810.99287 N278
Reference Guide to Holocaust Literature, Reference R 809.93358 R332G
World Literature and Its Times ~ different volumes on different topics, located throughout the 800s; search on this title for specific call numbers

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Electronic Reference Resources

MagillOnLiterature
- Accesses the full text of a variety of sources discussing literature, genres, and writers
- Allows you to search by Author's Cultural Identity ( such as African American, Gay and Lesbian, Jewish, or Latino), Gender, and Genre
- A sister resource is MagillOnAuthors
Gale Literary Databases
- A group of databases, including Contemporary Authors (biographical and bibliographical information), Contemporary Literary Criticism Select (critical essays), Dictionary of Literary Biography (biographical and critical essays), and the Twayne Author Series (full length books on individual authors)
- Gives an extensive list of ethnicities to choose from, including Welsh, Peruvian, and Japanese
Literary Index
- Another Gale database which serves as an index to other Gale resources
- No full text; use Illinet Online to find out if we own a work referred to in the index

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Articles

MLA International Bibliography
- A renowned index of articles on literature and related fields
- Will index literature discussing the works generated by particular groups, as well as criticism on particular works
- No full text is available
  - Use Illinet Online to determine whether the article is available in print or in microfilm (search by journal title)
  - Check our list of Alphabetical List of Journals and Magazines Available Online to see if the article is available electronically (again, search by journal title)

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Finding Representative Literature

Books at Elmhurst College

Use Illinet Online to find works by particular authors; you can also search by book title and keyword. Short stories and poems can be difficult to find individually; try doing a keyword search on the name of the short story or poem.

Interlibrary Loan

If you're not having any luck finding works in our library, you can extend your search to all the 56 libraries listed in Illinet Online. Click the ILCSO Libraries option in the menu bar at the top of the screen; or, select All ILCSO Libraries from the drop-down menu on the Illinet Online start page. Books can be ordered online -- they generally take about 7 to 10 working days to come in. More on Interlibrary Loan.

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Internet Resources

Multicultural Resources
- A page designed for the Sociology department
- There are several web resources that may be useful for discovering authors and dispossessed groups
Sociology 304: Majority-Minority Relations
- Another course page, designed for the Sociology department
- A variety of print and electronic resources that are excellent for finding articles on "minority" groups (which is a fluid term, depending on the majority population at hand)
Internet Public Library: Online Literary Criticism
- A guide to a variety of online sources containing literary criticism
- Can browse by time period as well as author name and title of work
Voice of the Shuttle
- A portal to excellent web sites in the humanities
- You can search for specific titles or groups, or browse by topic
Literary Resources on the Net
- A Rutgers professor is responsible for this excellent resource
- Searchable by keyword, but you can also browse by topic (ethnicity, time period, etc.)
Evaluating Web Sites
- Don't trust everything you find on the web
- Some things to keep in mind when looking for web pages

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Writing Your Paper

College Writing and Citing
- Resources on APA and MLA styles, as well as Turabian/Chicago Manual
- Also help in writing your paper

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Created 27 August, 2003
Last updated 27 August, 2003 by Ayanna Gaines, Assistant Reference Librarian
A.C. Buehler Library, Elmhurst College