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Literary Criticism on Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem: English 1A (Alisa Klevens)

Library Home page: http://www.chabotcollege.edu/library/

 

Search Strategy Handout: http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/handouts/Eng1A/strategy.html

Literary Criticism Databases
http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/abby/dblist.html#litcrit

These two databases lead you to reference materials that contain selected literary criticisms from a variety of resources. Often the most famous criticisms on particular works and authors will be found in these materials. Literature Resource Center is a large, full-text database of many literary criticisms coming from a variety of resources including reference books, magazines, and journals.

Gale Literary Index: Use this database to find criticisms on your author in many different print resources published by Gale such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Short Story Criticism (materials Chabot carries, though does not carry every volume of Dictionary of Literary Biography in print).   NOTE: Many critcisms on Tim O'Brien are in Print, Only, so please prepare yourself to come to the Library. Link of print resources available at the Library (use Gale Literary Index for list of sources, then go to the shelves to find the respective title and volume to find criticisms on your author) http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/handouts/ litcrit.html#GaleResources

Literature Resource Center: DO NOT E-MAIL ARTICLES.  THERE IS A TECHNOLOGICAL PROBLEM AND YOU WILL NOT GET THE ENTIRE ARTICLE. Find selected literary criticisms, articles, essays, and biographies on line and in full text.  However, for the novel, The Things They Carried, you will need to search for Gale print sources in Gale Literary Index, as well, and/or Project MUSE and EbscoHost Academic Search Elite.

How to use Literature Resource Center

1. At Author Search, enter the name of the author and surround it in quotation marks as the example below shows:

2. From your results, select the folder tab for a particular type of resources. In Biographies, you will not only find information about the author, but some of the biographies also include extensive overviews on the author's major works. Literary Criticism, Articles, and Work Overviews will provide interpretations, criticisms and general overviews of the author's works as well. Bibliographies will lead you to both writings by the author as well as writings about the author. Finally, Additional Resources will lead you to selected web sites on your chosen author. The category you are looking it is the one with the folder tab in white.

 

  

3. When selecting a category, you will sometimes have choices of subcategories. For example, in "Literary Criticism, Articles, & Work Overviews," you have listed below further selections in green boxes. Select the green box for your desired selection (usually will be "Literary Criticism" or "Articles" rather than the "Work Overviews" example listed below):

4. Once you make your selections, select the options listed below. The results will lead you to information in full text.

 

 

5. When viewing the secondary resource, itself in Literature Resource Center, you can E-Mail or Print by clicking on the options stated on the top left of the screen:

Multi-Subject Periodical Databases

In addition to the Gale Databases, you can find many other literary criticisms on line and in full text, especially coming from articles published from 1995 to the present.

EbscoHost Academic Search Elite A multi-subject database, covering the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education, and much more!  Tutorial available at: http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/handouts/ ebscohosthandout.html

Project MUSE Scholarly journal articles in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

 

 

Finding More Literary Criticisms in the Collection and Online

Literary Criticism Library Research Guide http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/handouts/litcrit.html

This guide scopes out the many different pathways to literary criticism through the print reference collection, library subscription databases, and many quality web sites.

Literary Criticism Collections in Reference, Reserves, and Online

Title	Location
Contemporary Literary Criticism	Reference: PN 771 C59  Look in most recent volume for complete Author Index.  Title Index is available in Reserves.  Also searchable in Gale Literary Index
Winchell, Mark Royden.  Joan Didion	Reserves: PS 3554 I33 Z95 and available in full-text in Literature Resource Center (Search by author (“Joan Didion” and then under “Literary Criticisms,” look for listings underneath Twayne’s United States Authors)
Harrison, Barbara Grizzutti.  “Joan Didion: Only Disconnect”	http://tinyurl.com/55d9a

 

Reference Resources for Further Research (Especially for Cultural/Historical Information)

Title	Location
A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory	Reference: PN 41 C83 1998
Dictionary of American History	Reference: E 174.D52 2003
A Guide to the History of California	Reference: F 860.2 G85 1989
American Decades	Reference: E 169.1 A4199 1995
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture	Reference: E 169.1.S764 2000

 

World Wide Web: Academic Searching

Librarians’ Index to the Internet       http://lii.org	INFOMINE: Social Sciences and Humanities       http://infomine.ucr.edu/
Online Subject Index http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/abby/dbsbysubject.html	Scout Report Archives       http://scout.wisc.edu/Archives/
Academic Info       http://www.academicinfo.us/	Virtual Learning Resources Center       http://www.virtuallrc.com/

 

 

World Wide Web: General Searching http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/handouts/Eng1A/Transue.html#search
In general, you would use this option last, as anybody can put anything on the World Wide Web.  For example, an amateur critic who may not even really read the book closely can easily publish his or her article on the Web and a search engine can easily pick it up.  Citing from weak criticisms does not make an effective paper, usually.

SearchGov       http://www.searchgov.com/	SearchEDU    http://www.searchedu.com
Google (limiting to .org)       http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:.org	About       http://www.about.com/

Map of Library: http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/abby/librarymap.html

Citing Resources

MLA Handout http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/onlineref/cited.html

 

Citing Resources from Library Subscription Databases, Using MLA http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Library/onlineref/cited.html#database

 

Additional Tips to Citing Resources from Literature Resource Center

The easiest way to figure out how to cite your online document is to view its citation as a link in the "Results List" mode, then modify it using the MLA format. Follow the directions as indicated under "Citing Resources from Library Subscription Databases" from the MLA Handout (link listed above). For the example below, since the place of publication for the original is unknown, it is omitted. Notice that additional information on the book and the credentials of the editors are NOT included in the citation.

From the Results List in Literature Resource Center:	How you would cite the source:
	Elias, Eduardo F. "Sandra Cisneros." Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 122: Chicano Writers, Second Series. Ed. Francisco A. Lomeli and Carl R. Shirley. Gale Group, 1992: 77-81. Literature Resource Center. Chabot College Lib., Hayward, CA. 15 Nov. 2003 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com/menu>.