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Professor
Landis Magnuson
Library Liaison
Nancy "Sam" Urtz
Contents
Introduction
Find Background Information
Find Books
Find Journal Articles
How to Cite Your Sources
Need More Help?
Subject Guide
English
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What follows is a guide to locating secondary sources (also called drama analyses or drama criticism) at the Geisel Library. It will point you to some very useful reference books and library databases. It will remind you of the search tips you picked up during the library segment of your EN 103 class last term, and provide helpful examples. You will be introduced to special tools and library services that will make the process of searching and locating relevant materials much easier.
For further assistance, please stop by the Reference Desk in person or pose your
question online.
Reference books are shelved by call number in a separate area near the Reference Desk on the main level of the library. They may not be checked out, but photocopiers are available on the lower level.
Reference books will help you to find background information on playwrights and their works, as well as the social issues, historical periods, and themes being addressed in this course.
Reference books are also very helpful in pointing you to additional sources for more detailed scholarly information. If a source found this way is of interest, determine its 'whereabouts' by using the Journal Finder tool available on the library's home page.
The library also has a growing collection of E-Reference resources. One of these is the Literature Resource Center (LRC); it is included in the selected list below.
American Drama Criticism Ref PS332 .E33 1979
Critical Survey of Drama Ref PN1625. C68 2003 (8 volumes)
Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama Ref PN1861 .C65
Contemporary Dramatists Ref PR737. C57. (Focus is American and British).
Drama Criticism Ref PN1655 .C6 (2 volumes)
Dramatic Criticism Index Ref PN1707 .B74
European Drama Criticism, 1900–1975 Ref PN1721 .P37
Guide to Critical Reviews Ref PN2266 .S32. Consult volumes 1–3 for drama reviews.
Literature Resource Center (LRC)
LRC is an online resource that includes the following databases and each of them contains biographical and critical essays about modern playwrights and their works. Scope is international.
• Contemporary Authors (Over 120,000 current authors are covered).
• Contemporary Literary Criticism (Critical essays on contemporary authors.)
• Dictionary of Literary Biography (Shorter essays on 7,000+ authors.)
• Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (Covers authors who died between
1900 and 1959).
Masterplots Ref PN44 .M33 1996 (12 volumes)
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama Ref PN1625 .M3 1984 (4 volumes)
Modern Drama; a Checklist of Critical Literature on 20th Century Plays Ref PN1707 .A35
Modern World Drama: an Encyclopedia Ref PN1851 .M36
Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama Ref PN1625 .G3 1969
Tennessee Williams Encyclopedia Ref PS3545 .I5365 Z459 2004
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Use the Library Catalog when searching for specific books and book chapters pertaining to your research. Most works on drama criticism are classified within the PN–PT range of call numbers and are located on the upper level of the Geisel Library (as well as in the Reference Collection as noted above).
Individual playwrights:
To find biographies, books of criticism or bibliographies about the works of a specific playwright, perform a subject search on the name (last name, first name) in the Library Catalog. Some examples:
- Soyinka, Wole
- Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860–1904
- Ibsen, Henrik 1828 1906 — Criticism And Interpretation
Exploring the critical, thematic, historic, or cultural context of dramatic works:
Perform keyword searches and then look for appropriate subject heading links when detailed results appear. You might also try keyword searches of individual titles as shown in one of the examples below.
- cherry orchard and (comedy or tragedy)
- drama and criticism and nigeria*
- aids and (drama* or plays)
- ibsen and "doll* house"
- russia* and social life and chekhov
- absurd and beckett
- pirandello and modernism
- American drama — 20th century
- Aids (Disease) — Drama
Keyword Search Tips
These were discussed in more detail in EN 103 classes. As a refresher:
- Use the AND operator to combine multiple concepts, and use the OR operator to expand your search with synonyms and related terms. For example, cherry orchard AND (comedy OR tragedy).
- Use the * (asterisk) as a truncation symbol to retrieve variant forms of a word root; for example, nigeria* will catch books with either the words "nigeria" OR "nigerian" in the catalog record.
WorldCat
If you are unable to locate enough materials in the Geisel Library catalog, search the collections of libraries worldwide using WorldCat. This enables you to identify relevant books owned by other colleges and have them delivered to Geisel Library for your use, via our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service. Once you submit a request, the book is typically delivered to Geisel Library within 5–8 days.
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CrossSearch
To search for journal articles across multiple databases at once, try CrossSearch. This tool allows you to select either subject categories or individual databases that relate to your topic, enter your keywords, and run the search. For articles with a literary focus, check the 'English' subject category and perform your search. CrossSearch displays the first 20 results from each database. If an article looks useful, click on the  icon to see if it is available in full-text or in Geisel Library's periodicals collection on the lower level.
Individual Databases
Searching individual databases will often allow for more precise results and/or uncover additional appropriate references than will be found when performing a CrossSearch.
Upon performing an individual database search, view the results screen to determine the whereabouts of needed items. If there is no full-text link readily available, click on the icon. Here you will discover whether the journal is available in print format at the Geisel Library or in full-text via another electronic database. If the article is not available, click on the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) link to request a PDF copy of the article from another library. Articles requested via ILL will be delivered to your college email inbox
within 5–8 days.
When searching these databases, you may employ the same 'Keyword Search Tips' that were described earlier in this guide.
Here now is a list of the most useful databases to support research in drama analysis.
Academic Search Premier
This database is multi-disciplinary and many of the articles are available in full-text. Includes publications such as Theatre, Theatre History Studies, and Theatre Research International.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
This index provides citations to more than 1,300 arts and humanities journals. Special feature: cited references.
Google Scholar
Returns results for articles and documents from scholarly publications and academic institutions — many full-text sources. Links to SAC subscriptions if accessed from the library's web pages.
JSTOR
Search here for full-text articles from major journals in the humanities and social sciences. Coverage is generally from the beginning of publication to within 5 years of the current issue. User Guide
Literature Resource Center
In addition to providing lengthy biographical profiles of authors, plot summaries, and literary criticism, this resource also provides the full text of articles from more than 100 literary journals. Includes publications such as Modern Drama. It also provides an interesting feature entitled "Selected Websites" that provides links to sites of importance on authors and topics. User Guide
MLA International Bibliography
Produced by the Modern Language Association of America, this electronic index consists of bibliographic records pertaining to all literary genres including drama. (1963–present). Scope is international. No full-text. Check out the Citation Maker feature, allowing you to save your citation to the appropriate (MLA) format, for use when preparing your bibliography.
User Guide
Project MUSE
This database is also multi-disciplinary and most of the articles are available in full-text. Project Muse includes articles from relevant journals such as Theatre Journal and Modern Drama.
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MLA is the citation style required in this class. The library has both print and electronic versions of MLA citation guides; or ask a Librarian for assistance.
Please also note that many of the databases offer Citation Maker features, allowing you to save your selected sources to the MLA format.
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Research Help (a Geisel Library-developed website which includes numerous guides and tutorials)
Video Tutorials: Journal Finder, WebBridge, CrossSearch (running time: approx. 3 minutes)
Identifying Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources
Send us an E-mail
Make an Appointment
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