Resource Guide for Chinese Literature in English Language Resources

Contact: Jennie McKee , Access Services Librarian

Getting Started

There are many handbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias that provide basic information. If you are not clear about your topic, try establishing its limits with a good definition and some introductory information. The following general resources can give you a quick overview or summary of the topic and you can find other more specialized resources in the Reference Room:


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Handbooks, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias

General Literature

A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory
Ref PN41 .C83 1998
"A comprehensive dictionary of literary terms which are in regular use in the world today."

Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English
Ref PN241 .E53 2000 (2 v.)

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century
Ref PN771 .E5 1999 (4 v. )

A Glossary of Literary Terms
Ref PN41 .A184 2005
Defines and discusses terms, critical theories, and points of view commonly used in the analysis and interpretation of literary works.

New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Ref PN1021 .N39 1993
History, theory, technique, and criticism of poetry from earliest period to present. Also available through Literature Online.

Chinese Literature

Dictionary of Oriental Literatures
Ref PJ31 .D5 (3 v.)

A Guide to Chinese Literature
Ref PL2271 .I3413 1997

Guide to Chinese Poetry and Drama, 2nd ed.
Ref PL2307 .L5L85 1984

Guide to Chinese Prose, 2nd ed.
Ref PL2264 .P34 1984
Bibliography of resources on Chinese prose.

The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature
Ref PL2264 .I53 1986 (2 v.)

Modern Chinese Fiction: A Guide to its Study and Appreciation
Ref PL2442 .Y3 1981

Selective Guide to Chinese Literature, 1900-1949
Ref PL2302 .S45 1987 (4 v.)
v.1 – The Novel, v.2 – The Short Story, v.3 – The Poem, v.4 – The Drama


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Literary Criticism and Critical Theory

Contemporary Critical Theory: A Selective Bibliography
Ref PN81 .M37 C6 1993
Lists books on contemporary critical theory and on the works of the leading individual theorists.

Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory
Ref PN41 .H36 1992
Essays on seventy concepts of special importance to literary theory.

Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism
Ref PN86 .E63 1999
"Guide to literary theory and criticism past and present." Entries cover individuals, theories and concepts in both Western and non-Western theory and criticism. 2 v.

Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary
Ref PN597 .T94 2000
"Entries on major and minor literary movements and schools associated with Twentieth-century world literature." Includes entries on individual writers identified with those movements, such as novelists, poets, dramatists, theorists, etc.

 

The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Ref PN81 .J554 2005 A guide to the intellectual traditions of literary theory that includes articles on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.

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Finding Journal Articles and Essays

Indexes (sometimes called databases) allow you to search the contents of periodicals to identify articles on your topic. Some indexes are inter-disciplinary, and some focus on a particular subject area. Some contain fulltext or links to fulltext from other sources. Many include citations for books, dissertations, and conference papers as well as journal articles.

After you find a citation for an article, you will need to check the Print & Electronic Journal page to see if Reed subscribes to the journal and if we have the particular issue.

If the article you are looking for is not available at Reed, you can request it from Interlibrary Loan.

Academic Search Premier
Multi-disciplinary database that provides indexing and abstracts for over 7000 journals, with fulltext for close to 4000.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975 - present)
As part of the Web of Science (along with the Social Sciences Citation Index and the Science Citation Index). The three indexes may be searched independently or together. Allows for searching of references cited in journal articles, as well as keyword, author, and title searching.

Contemporary Authors
"A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields. Provides complete biographical and bibliographical references for more than 90,000 authors in the U.S. and around the world."

Humanities Abstracts (1984 - present)

Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective (1907 - 1984)
An author and subject index to more than 300 English language periodicals. Available in print as Humanities Index (Ref AI3 .H8) from 1974 – 2000.

Literary Index (Gale)
"Gale's Literary Index is a master index to every literary series published by Gale. It combines and cross references more than 130,000 author names including pseudonyms and variant names and more than 140,000 titles into one source."

MLA Bibliography (1926 - present)
Index of literary, linguistic and folklore scholarship. MLA covers all languages and all literatures except classical Greek and Latin.

PIO – Periodicals Index Online (1665 - varies by title)
An electronic index to the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues. Every article is indexed. Easy to search for book reviews.

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Selected Websites

MCLC Resource Center (Modern Chinese Language & Culture)
"This resource center contains, among other things, bibliographies of mostly English-language materials on modern Chinese literature, film, art and culture…" The resource is both browsable by topic and has a search engine.

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