LibGuides: Lang&Lit: EH403, 404, & 562 -- Shakespeare: Home

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EH403, 404, & 562 -- Shakespeare: This Library Guide directs you to sources for information on William Shakespeare and his poetic and dramatic works. The resources presented are selected and representative, not comprehensive, and are intended to provide a sampler of the information sources available on Shakespeare accessible via the Houston Cole Library. Among these resources are print and electronic books, print reference books, electronic databases and print journals, and other information formats such as streaming video.

Key Resources

Book Series from Academic Publishers

Several academic publishers publish book series on literature or individual authors. Sometimes a publishing house produces more than one series of this nature, so that it becomes easier to keep up with publishers rather than with series titles. Below is a list of some (but only some) of the publishers who fall into this category. To see what is available in any of these series for the author you are studying, use the catalog search widget in the box to your right, toggled to Advanced Search. Put your author's name, in natural order, as a phrase (center column drop-down menu), in the top search box and in the middle search box, also as a phrase, the name of the publisher or the italicized series title, and <Search>.

Once you have before you the JaxCat catalog record for a book in any one of these series, you sometimes can discover what other books in that series Houston Cole Library owns or has access to by simply clicking on the underscored words in the "series" line for that record.

Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Companion to)
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The Cambridge Companions are series of books in various academic disciplines, including literature, whose individual volumes contain essays commisioned for the volume (reprint essays are rare). Unlike many essay anthologies, the Cambridge Companions contain detailed indexes. From http://cco.cambridge.org/collection?id=literature: "The Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics collection offers over 2000 comprehensive and accessible essays on major authors, periods and genres, written by experts and designed for student readers. For the author Companions each writer is placed in literary and historical context; their major works are analysed, either in separate chapters or grouped according to theme, and their influence on later writers assessed. The generic and topical Companions cover periods of English literature such as Old English or the Victorian Novel, and literary genres such as Modernism or Greek Tragedy, giving the student vital contextual information about political, social, religious and artistic relationships."
Chelsea House (Modern Critical Interpretations, Modern Critical Views)
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Chelsea House (Modern Critical Interpretations, Modern Critical Views) Chelsea House publishes several anthologies under the editorship of Harold Bloom, with Modern Critical Interpretations and Modern Critical Views being the series with the largest representation in Houston Cole Library. Although some of these series books are available electronically, most are in print format. These books in effect are a continuation of the Prentice Hall series Twentieth Century Interpretations and Twentieth Century Views and like the Prentice Hall books are collections of previously-published essays. Unlike the P-H titles however, the Chelsea House books are thoroughly indexed. For both the C. H. and P-H series, Views is author-centered while Interpretations is work-centered.
Facts on File (Critical Companion to)
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In my opinion, the Critical Companions represent the Gold Standard for print reference works in literature (some titles are available electronically). Usually in four parts plus an index, these books offer a section of biography on the author; entries on the author's works (including some works so obscure information on them may be found nowhere else); a section on people, terms, and topics pertaining to the author or the works; and appendices which often include bibliographies and chronologies.
G. K. Hall (Critical Essays on)
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The Critical Essays on series "seek to anthologize the most important criticism on a wide variety of topics and writers." The essays included were previously published elsewhere. Like the Twayne author books, Critical Essays on offers separate series for American, British, and World authors bound in blue, red, and green respectively.
The writers most represented are those who flourished prior to 1970.
Oxford University Press (Oxford Companion to)
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From http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/category/academic/series/general/oc.do#.UGN2GlF618E: "Oxford Companions combine the functionality of a subject dictionary with the breadth and scope of an encyclopedia. Their lively, accessible, and informative style makes them readable and entertaining, providing unique coverage of a wide variety of over 50 subjects, from music, art, and literature, to science, warfare, and wine. " It would be harder to find an academic topic which does not have an Oxford Companion than to find one that does. Individual volumes generally have a broad, academic discipline-based scope and offer alphabetized entries which may range in length anywhere from a few lines to a few pages.
Prentiss Hall (Twentieth Century Interpretations, Twentieth Century Views)
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The Prentiss-Hall anthologies were to the third quarter of the twentieth century what
the Chelsea House books are from 1975 to the present: collections of essays considered important which were previously published elsewhere. Chelsea House simply took the torch passed to it from Prentiss Hall. As with C.H., the P-H Views books focus on authors, while the Interpretations books focus on individual works. Unlike the C.H. books, the P-H volumes do not have individual indexes.
Salem Press
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Salem Press publishes several series of library books and library reference books. The most-used series provided by Houston Cole Library are the Critical Surveys, Masterplots, and Masterplots II -- reference books which are excellent beginning points for literary research -- and Critical Insights, which are anthologies of critical essays that are part of the library's circulating collection. Much of the content of these books is available electronically, either through an EBSCOhost database or as an eBook.
Twayne (TEAS, TUSAS, TWAS)
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The Twayne author series books (English Authors, United States Authors, World Authors) are monographs focusing on a single author that provide an excellent overview of that author's life and career. Each volume is an omnibus introduction designed to be used by high school and college students. Common after-matter in these books includes a bibliography and index, and the bibliography frequently includes books and journal articles not picked up by electronic databases.
Two hundred of the Twayne books are available electronically via database. The number of titles in print format in the library runs to nearly two thousand. Like the G.K. Hall Critical Essays on . . . series, the Twayne books share a common binding pattern and color scheme: blue for American, red for English, green for world.
University of South Carolina Press (Understanding Contemporary American Literature)
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The publishing firms of Twayne and G.K. Hall no longer exist, but the University of South Carolina Press has taken up where Twayne left off with its Understanding Contemporary American Literature series. Like the Twayne books, the UCAL series books are monographs devoted to a single author. Unlike the Twayne books, the UCAL books cover only contemporary American writers; no English or world authors.
The simplest way to see whether Houston Cole Library owns one of these series books for a particular author is to go to the JaxCat Advanced Search and put the author's name (as a phrase) in the top search box and south carolina (as a phrase) in the middle search box and .

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Lang&Lit: EH403, 404, & 562 -- Shakespeare: Home

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