Reed College Library: French

There are many handbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias that provide basic information on French literature. If you wish to explore French literature, these reference sources provide definitions and introductory information about the subject. Other resources are also available in the Reference Room.

General

Dictionnaire Universel des Littératures
Ref PN41 .D489 1994
A multi-volume work covering world literature.

The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Ref PN81 .J554 2005
A guide to the intellectual traditions of literary theory. It 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.

European Writers
Ref PN501 .E9 1983
Essays on author’s life, times, and works. Includes bibliographies.

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20^th Century
Ref PN771 .E5 1999
Biographical and critical articles that include bibliographical references of works by and about authors.

New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Ref PN1021 .N39 1993
"Provides surveys of 106 national poetries; descriptions of poetic forms and genres...detailed explanations of the devices of prosody and rhetoric; and overviews of all major schools of poetry ancient and modern, Western and Eastern...provides balanced and comprehensive accounts of the major movements and issues in criticism and literary theory."

French Literature

Dictionnaire des Littératures de Langue Française
Ref PQ41 .B4 1994
A comprehensive dictionary containing articles on authors, terms, and themes from the medieval period to the present. Especially strong on author biographies.

Dictionnaire des Œuvres Littéraires de Langue Française
Ref PQ41 .B42 1994
A comprehensive dictionary of the works of French literature listed by title of work.

Dictionary of Modern French Literature: From the Age of Reason Through Realism
Ref PQ41 .D65 1986
Entries provide an introduction to major writers, works, and literary movements. Includes a chronology of history and literature in two parallel columns. Covers the period from 1715 to 1880.

Guide to French Literature
Ref PQ41 .L48 1992
Contains long essays on authors, places, works, and literary movements.

The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature
Ref PQ149 .F47 1999
An encyclopedia about women writers and the world in which they lived from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth century. Articles on women who worked mainly in France are complemented by essays on literary, historical and sociological subjects. Appendices include a general bibliography and chronology of women writers.

French Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Source Book
Ref PQ149 .F73 1991
Bibliography of primary and secondary works covering 51 of France's most important women writers. An additional chapter covers women troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries.

The Lyrics of the Trouvéres: A Research Guide (1970 - 1990)
Ref PQ199 .D67 1994
The trouvéres were poet composers whose lyrics were performed for courtly audiences and at popular festivities in northern France. This work covers their production from their beginnings to 1350. Contains references to materials published on the trouvéres between 1970 to 1990 arranged by subject, form and genre, and author.

Guide to French Poetry Explication
Ref PQ401 .C65 1993
A selective bibliography of criticism published from 1960 - 1990 on French poetry of all periods. Includes books and journal articles in French and in English.

Many French authors are covered in various volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) series. The DLB volumes contain biographical/bibliographical essays for the authors covered. Several titles are listed below; check the Library catalog for a complete listing.

Nineteenth Century French Fiction Writers: Romanticism and Realism, 1800 - 1860
Ref PQ655 .N56 1992

Locating Books

To locate books, look in the library catalog. If you know the author or editor, search Author, last name first. To search by Title, you must know the first few words of the title, but you do not have to know the complete title. If you are looking for books on a particular topic, try a Keyword search first. Type some keywords and see if you locate any appropriate book titles. To look for additional titles click on the subject headings assigned to them to find additional books on your topic.

If you fail to find books on your topic in the Reed catalog, try searching in the Summit catalog. The Summit catalog contains the books owned by over 25 academic libraries in Oregon and Washington. Click on "Search in Summit" and the system will automatically perform your search in the Summit catalog. If you find a title you want you can request it by clicking the "Request this item" link and following the prompts.

WorldCat
An online catalog, containing over 50 million records for items owned by Reed and libraries worldwide. Use WorldCat to find books, journal and newspaper titles, sound recordings, musical scores, films and manuscripts. WorldCat cannot be used to find individual journal articles.

Finding Journal Articles and Critical 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 (periodicals cannot be borrowed from Summit).

General

Academic Search Premier (1975 - present)
A multi-disciplinary database containing fulltext for more than 4,600 scholarly publications. In addition to the fulltext, the database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 8,000 journals.

JSTOR
This electronic archive of essential academic journals includes several major journals from the field of French literary studies.

MLA (1921 - present)
Index of literary, linguistic and folklore scholarship. MLA covers all languages and all literatures except classical Greek and Latin.

Periodicals Index Online (1665 - varies by title)
Formerly PCI - Periodicals Contents Index. An index to millions of articles in more than 4,600 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. International in scope, PCI covers journals going back over 300 years.

French Literature

A Critical Bibliography of French Literature (1947 -)
Ref PQ226 .C75 1947
An important, selective, annotated bibliography arranged in several volumes in chronological order by time period. Lists books, dissertations and articles.

Bibliographie der Französischen Literaturwissenschaft
PQ230 .B52
Lists periodical articles and articles in collections. Material is presented chronologically from the Middle Ages to the present and indexed by name and by subject. Library has 1956 - 1991.

French VI Bibliography: Critical and Biographical References for the Study of Nineteenth Century French Literature (1954 - 1965)
Ref PQ305 .F73
Bibliography of books and journal articles.

French VII Bibliography: Critical and Biographical References for the Study of Contemporary French Literature
Ref PQ305 .F74
Bibliography of books and journal articles. Continued by French XX Bibliography.

French XX Bibliography (1969 -)
Ref PQ305 .F75
Continues French VII Bibliography. Bibliography of books and journal articles for the study of French literature since 1885.

Internet Resources

ARTFL: A Textual Database
Consists of nearly 2,000 texts ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing. The 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are represented nearly equally, with a comparatively smaller selection of 17th century texts as well as some medieval and Renaissance texts. Among ARTFL's texts are dictionaries for the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and the Diderot Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences…

Gallica: Digital Library of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France
Gallica serves as a digital encyclopedia and consists of printed materials (books, journals, newspapers, printed music, and other documents), graphic materials (engravings, maps, photographs, and others), and sound recordings.

Library

Research Guide for French Literature

Contact: Jack Levine , Acquisitions Librarian

Getting Started

General

French Literature

Locating Books

Finding Journal Articles and Critical Essays

General

French Literature

Internet Resources

Style Manual