Link Disclaimer: This web page has links to resources which are not maintained by Chattanooga State. Chattanooga State is not responsible for controlling access to these web sites, changes to the content of these sites, or site compliance to World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Access Initiative (WAI), Section 508 guidelines from the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) of the U.S. Federal Government, or other access standards. These web sites were originally identified as having valuable and appropriate content related to the aims of the Reading & Writing Center. Please notify the webmaster of inactive, broken, changed, or inappropriate links.
Some students find writing essays about literature more difficult than writing essays on other topics. In part, this is because writing about literature usually involves not only analysis but interpretation. Also, many students are unfamiliar with the terminology for discussing literature or are uncomfortable with the style of language of older literature. The resources below may help students in finding research for a particular writer or in understanding and appreciating literature in general.
LINKS IN THIS PARAGRAPH OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW: Your best resource for literary research, analysis, and interpretation is the Chattanooga State Augusta R. Kolwyck Library. While the Internet can be a useful resource for many research projects, there are curently very few credible or reliable Internet resources for literary analysis and interpretation. Fortunately, the library has a wealth of resources from books on individual writers to extensive collections of reference works like Poetry Criticism or Poetry Explication. The library also offers students access to a variety of databases such as Literature Resource Center and MagillOnLiterature. The reference librarians may even have prepared an assignment guide for your teacher's research assignment, or they may have created a research guide specifically for your literary figure or for the genre or time period of literature you are researching. For instance, the library has research guides for African American Literature, Classical Literature, Literary Research, and Shakespeare. And the Reference page has links to MLA documentation resources for when you are required to use sources for a paper.
LINKS IN THIS PARAGRAPH OPEN IN THIS BROWSER WINDOW: You may also want to visit other parts of the Reading & Writing Center web site, particularly the classes, research, reference, and writing sections, for help in writing about literature.
While the Internet is not the best source for scholarly articles on literature, it can be useful for finding a text copy or facsimile of a literary work, or an audio or video reading of a literary work. So while you probably will not find articles about Moby Dick, you may be able to find a copy of the novel. For online copies of literary works, see also the General Resources on the Reference page
In addition to the resources listed for the specific works, be sure to look at the elements of fiction and poetry and the discussion of critical theories.
L. Kip Wheeler, Composition and Literature Web site, Carson-Newman: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/index.html. This site contains valuable resources which Dr. Wheeler has made available in connection with her classes at Carson-Newman. Some information is specific to her classes.
For information on individual authors, select the Authors link from the Menu bar on the home page. Authors will be listed alphabetically. This source includes short biographies and articles as well as lists of print resources and links to relevant Internet sites.