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Literary Criticism on Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried: English 4 (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.

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.

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

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

World Wide Web: Academic Searching

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.

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.