Reed College Library: German

There are many handbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias that provide basic information relating to German language literatures. If you wish to explore your topic, these reference sources provide definitions and introductory information about the subject. Other more specialized resources are available in the Reference Room.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

General

Kindlers Neues Literatur Lexikon
Ref PN44. K55 1988
A major encyclopedic work covering world literature. Articles include biographical information, summaries of works and bibliographies for further research.

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.

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

European Writers
Ref PN501 .E9 1983
Essays on authors’ lives, times, and works. Includes bibliographies.

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."

German Language Literature

Encyclopedia of German Literature
Ref PT41 .E63 2000
Essays by German literary scholars in Anglo-American countries, thus presenting a critical perspective on German literature from the outside. Essays are on authors, works, and topics. A bibliography follows each entry.

The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature
Ref PT41 .F46 1997
Brief essays on feminist scholarship on German literary and cultural studies. Essays are not limited to women writers, but include topics such as literary periods, critical theories, female stereotypes, and major authors and their works.

Oxford Companion to German Literature
Ref PT41 .G3 1997
Brief articles on authors, terms, literary movements, etc. Includes authors writing in German wherever they live.

Hauptwerke der Deutschen Literatur : Einzeldarstellungen und Interpretationen
Ref PT41 .H38 1994
Essays on authors and their works arranged by cultural era.

Literaturlexikon : Autoren und Werke Deutscher Sprache, 15 vols.
Ref PT41 .L5 1988
Encyclopedic treatment of German language authors and their works.

Kritisches Lexikon zur Deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur (KLG)
Ref PT155 .K757 1978
Critical essays on writers and their works followed by bibliographies of works by and about the writer. Loose-leaf format permits easy updating.

Women writers of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland : an Annotated Bio-bibliographical Guide
Ref PT167 .W66 1989
Articles on 54 women authors from the tenth century to the present. Each article includes a biography, the author’s major themes, a survey of criticism and a bibliography.

Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon : das 20. Jahrhundert : Biographisches-bibliographisches Handbuch
Ref PT401 .D453 2000

Neues Handbuch der Deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur Seit 1945
Ref PT401 .N48 1993
A guide to contemporary German literature and criticism.

Deutsche Dramatiker des 20. Jahrhunderts
Ref PT666 .D465 2000
Extended essays on twentieth century German dramatists.

Reclams Romanlexikon : Deutschsprachige Erzählende Literatur vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart
Ref PT744 .R42 2000
History, criticism and plot summaries of German fiction.

Guides & Bibliographies

Many German language 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.

German Writers From the Enlightenment to Sturm und Drang, 1720-1764
Ref PT293 .G47 1990

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 you 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. Includes books, journal and newspaper titles, sound recordings, musical scores, films and manuscripts.

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).

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.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975 – present)
Multi-disciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. (Available through Web of Science.)

Germanistik (1960 – present)
Ref PF3010 .G47
Index of books, parts of books and periodical articles on German language literature.

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

MLA Bibliography (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.

Library

Research Guide for German Language Literature

Contact: Jack Levine , Acquisitions Librarian