Research Guides: English Language and Literature: Home

Background Information

Use these encyclopedias and dictionaries to find discipline-specific, trusted information. These databases search reference sources like Black Literature Criticism, The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literature in English and many, many, more.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is an online collection of many reference books covering a wide variety of subjects, with entries covering such subjects as literature, art, technology, law and more, all aggregated and integrated in a robust search engine.
Credo Reference is an online collection of many reference books covering a wide variety of subjects, with entries covering such subjects as medicine, art, technology, law and more, all aggregated and integrated in a robust search engine.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
An online full-text collection of valuable reference books in multiple subject areas; includes many multidisciplinary reference e-books, including some with primary source documents; can be browsed by subject or searched by keyword.
Individual titles can also be accessed from the RU Library Catalog.
Sage eReference General Search This link opens in a new window
Sage E-Reference is a good tool if your research crosses other disciplines like history or sociology. They don't offer any literature-specific titles.

Go directly to English Literature and Film databases

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides students with exposure to peer reviewed scholarly research with a reference resource of over 1,500 academic journals and other content.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Journal articles, books and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association, the electronic version of the Bibliography dates back to 1963 and contains over 2.3 million citations from more than 4,400 journals and series and 1,000 book publishers.
MLA Style Center This link opens in a new window
The MLA Style Center links members of the Modern Language Association and provides new avenues for scholarly communication and collaboration. This growing platform allows MLA members to create a professional profile, connect with one another, seek feedback on their work, establish and join groups to discuss common interests, and share their ideas with a broader audience through new kinds of open-access publications.

Find Articles: Recommended for English / Literature

This will search for articles in Academic Search Complete (a multi-subject database) and MLA Bibliography, Film and Televesion Index, and Short Story Index. See database descriptions below.