Literary Criticism is the term for work written about literature; these works study, evaluate, discuss, and interpret works. Criticism may also indicate a theoretical approach to interpreting the work, such as new criticism, deconstruction, new historicism, queer theory, reader response or structuralism.
Researching literary criticism may require finding information on a specific theory, in which case encyclopedias or dictionaries of literary terms may be helpful starting points. For a literary critique of a work, scholarly articles and book chapters are more appropriate. Try searching databases and the library catalog using keywords such as the name of the theory or the name of a literary work.
You can usually find literature criticism articles in two places: in library databases and in books. There is no difference in the quality of the articles, but you may find more articles to choose from when using databases. Or, you may find one format more convenient than the other.
Open the Library Catalogue tab on the Library's Homepage.
1) click on Advanced Search
2) change the first dropdown menu from "Keyword" to "Subject"
3) enter the author's last name in the blank search box
4) in the next search line, change dropdown menu to "Keyword" and type Criticism into the blank search box
5) click Search
6) review the results list and click on the title of the item to open the detailed record
7) to locate the item on the library shelves, click the hyperlink "text" located beside the item Call Number - complete the form to send a text message to your phone of location details. Or simply note the Call Number and go to the main library shelf area to locate the item
Find eBooks
1) open the Database tab from the Library's Homepage
2) from the "Database by Title" dropdown menu, locate "eBook Collection"
3) there are two e-book collections, choose the Academic Collection
4) using the available search tools, search for author's name AND criticism