Reed College Library: Spanish

There are many handbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias that provide basic information for Peninsular, Latin American and Chicano literature. 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

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 20th Century
Ref PN771 .E5 1999 Biographical and critical articles include bibliographies 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."

Spain

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

Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula
Ref PN849.S6 D54 1993 Coverage of literature, authors, and movements from the 10th Century to the mid-1980s.

Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature
Ref PQ6006 .O95 Brief articles on authors, terms, literary movements, etc. Includes authors writing in Spanish around the world.

Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature
Ref PQ6055 .F46 2002 Spanish literature from a women’s studies perspective.

Spanish Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Source Book
Ref PQ6055 .S63 1993 Covers 50 authors from the 14th Century to the early 20th Century from a feminist critical perspective.

Women Writers of Spain: An Annotated Bio-bibliographical Guide
Ref PQ6055 .W65 1986

Spanish Literature, 1500-1700: A Bibliography of Golden Age Studies in Spanish and English, 1925-1980
Ref PQ6064 .M67 1984

Twentieth-Century Spanish Poets. Second Series
Ref PQ6085.T88 1994 Biographical/bibliographical essays.

Contemporary Spanish Novel: An Annotated, Critical Bibliography, 1936-1994
Ref PQ6144 .A64 1996 Limited to general studies covering trends, topics, several authors or works.

The Cervantes Encyclopedia
Ref PQ6337 .A2 2004 Contains essays that place Cervantes and his works in context. Entries include brief commentary on all known works by Cervantes, virtually all Cervantes' characters, and important figures from his times.

Mexico, Latin America

Handbook of Latin American Literature
Ref PQ7081.A1 H36 1992 Essays on the various national literatures.

Latin American Writers
Ref PQ7081.A1 L37 1989 & suppl. Contains biography, critical studies, and bibliographies on writers from the 15th to the 20th Century.

Literary Cultures of Latin America
Ref PQ7081 .A1 L525 2004 Each volume provides in-depth historical, linguistic, and cultural information on the literatures of Latin America.

Women Authors of Modern Hispanic South America: A Bibliography of Literary Criticism and Interpretation
Ref PQ7081 .C94 1989

A Bibliographical Guide to Spanish American Literature: Twentieth-Century Sources
Ref PQ7081 .R438 1988

Spanish American Authors: The Twentieth Century
Ref PQ7081.3 .F57 1992 “…Novelists and poets from Central and South America, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean…”. Includes biographical information, critical summaries, and bibliographies.

Modern Latin-American Fiction Writers. Second Series
Ref PQ7082 .N7 M55 1994 Contains essays on a writer’s life, times and works. Includes bibliographies.

Contemporary Spanish American Poets: A Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources
Ref PQ7084.S4 C6 1992 Covers 86 poets born in the first half of the 20th Century.

Dictionary of Mexican Literature
Ref PQ7106 .D53 1992 Covers writers, literary schools, and cultural movements with emphasis on the 20th Century.

Cuba

Dictionary of Twentieth-century Cuban Literature
Ref PQ7378 .D53 1990 Coverage from 1900 to mid-1980s. Includes biography, criticism and bibliographies.

Escritores de la Diáspora Cubana: Manual Bio-bibliográfica [Cuban Exile Writers: A Biobibliographic Handbook]
Ref PQ7378 .M37 1986 Covers exiles from 1959 to the early 1980s.

United States

Chicano Writers. Third Series
Ref PS153 .M4 C485 1999 Contains essays on the life and work of authors covered.

Latino and Latina Writers
REF PS153 .H56 L39 2004 Contains essays on the life and work of authors covered. Volume 1 includes Chicano and Chicana authors. Volume 2 includes authors from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

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 more than 50 million records for items owned by Reed and other libraries around the world. The database each includes books, journals and newspapers (but NOT references to individual articles), 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.

JSTOR (coverage varies)
This electronic archive of essential academic journals includes several major journals from the field of Spanish 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 Spanish Literature

Contact: Jack Levine , Acquisitions Librarian

Getting Started