Introduction

In order to successfully write about literature, we have to be able to research it as well. Researching literature allows us to consider others’ interpretations of the works we read and read criticism written by established scholars in the field. This activity will introduce you to primary and secondary source and the value of each. You will also learn a bit about searching online databases and evaluating sources once you’ve found them. As you’ll see in this activity, research is not just about accepting the first source you find but about the trial and error of looking through multiple databases and source types to find reliable, relevant research for your projects.

Finding & Evaluating Sources of Literary Criticism
Finding Literary Criticism

Literary criticism analyzes fiction, poetry, drama and some types of non-fiction by considering key issues such as plot, character, setting, theme, imagery, and voice. Literary criticism may also consider the effectiveness of a work of literature, but it’s important to note that in this context the word “criticism” doesn’t simply mean finding fault with the writing but rather looking at it from a critical or analytical viewpoint in order to understand it better.

It’s also important to note that literary criticism involves more than just summarizing the plot or offering biographical information about the author.

Evaluating Sources of Literary Criticism

If you’re asked to find scholarly sources of literary criticism, you should look for journals that are peer-reviewed. In other words, before articles are accepted for publication in the journal, they’re reviewed by other scholars. Articles in a scholarly journal will also include citations for other works that are referenced. Scholarly books, likewise, will document their sources and are usually written by someone affiliated with a college or university and published by a university press.

Even if you know an article has come from a peer-reviewed journal, you may still wonder about its relevance, particularly if the work or author you’re researching is one that’s been studied extensively. One way to get more information about a source is to type the title of the article into Google Scholar and see how many times it’s been cited. The higher the number, the more likely it is that the article is influential—or at least controversial. You can do a similar search to learn more about the reputation of a journal, book, or author.

Finally, when looking for critical work, don’t rely on sources like SparkNotes, which provide help for students but are not considered reputable scholarly sources.

Sources of Literary Criticism

An ideal place to begin your search for literary criticism is with your college library, which will often have InfoGuides that will help you with research. College librarians also designate which databases are best as sources in certain cases. For example, Academic Search Complete: EBSCO, database is a general source for scholarly works in a variety of disciplines. It covers works on the literature of all languages.

A few other resources you may want to investigate:

• African American Review: This online journal specifically focuses on African American literature and ethnic studies, “[providing] a lively exchange between writers and scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences who hold diverse perspectives on African American literature and culture.” The website features full-text online access to back issues. Free access.
• American Literary Scholarship: This journal offers current critical analysis of American literature. Among the writers discussed are Whitman, Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Twain, and Faulkner. It is available in print at PS3.A47 or electronically. Not free.
• The Year’s Work in English Studies: This bibliography lists and assesses the scholarly literary criticism published in a given year. The information is presented according to major literary periods, such as “American Literature to 1900” and can also be searched by author. It can be accessed at: ywes.oxfordjournals.org/

Finding Literary Criticism. Provided by: The University Writing Center, Texas A&M University. Located at: http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/Students/Handouts-Guides/Handouts-%28Get-It-Written%29/Researching/Finding-Literary-Criticism. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Whether conducting research in the social sciences, humanities (especially history), arts, or natural sciences, the ability to distinguish between primary and secondary source material is essential. Basically, this distinction illustrates the degree to which the author of a piece is removed from the actual event being described, informing the reader as to whether the author is reporting impressions first hand (or is first to record these immediately following an event), or conveying the experiences and opinions of others—that is, second hand.

Primary Sources

These are contemporary accounts of an event, written by someone who experienced or witnessed the event in question. These original documents (i.e., they are not about another document or account) are often diaries, letters, memoirs, journals, speeches, manuscripts, interviews and other such unpublished works. They may also include published pieces such as newspaper or magazine articles (as long as they are written soon after the fact and not as historical accounts), photographs, audio or video recordings, research reports in the natural or social sciences, or original literary or theatrical works.

Secondary Sources

The function of these is to interpret primary sources, and so can be described as at least one step removed from the event or phenomenon under review. Secondary source materials, then, interpret, assign value to, conjecture upon, and draw conclusions about the events reported in primary sources. These are usually in the form of published works such as journal articles or books, but may include radio or television documentaries, or conference proceedings.

Defining Questions

When evaluating primary or secondary sources, the following questions might be asked to help ascertain the nature and value of material being considered:

How does the author know these details (names, dates, times)? Was the author present at the event or soon on the scene?
Where does this information come from—personal experience, eyewitness accounts, or reports written by others?
Are the author’s conclusions based on a single piece of evidence, or have many sources been taken into account (e.g., diary entries, along with third-party eyewitness accounts, impressions of contemporaries, newspaper accounts)?

Ultimately, all source materials of whatever type must be assessed critically and even the most scrupulous and thorough work is viewed through the eyes of the writer/interpreter. This must be taken into account when one is attempting to arrive at the ‘truth’ of an event.

Distinguish Between Primary and Secondary Sources. Provided by: University of California Santa Cruz University Library. Located at: http://guides.library.ucsc.edu/primarysecondary. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright

Using Databases

Search Magazine Articles, Research Reports, Journal Articles, and Abstracts Published in Magazines, Newspapers, and Scholarly Journals.

Magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals provide contemporary material that is often on very narrow topics. Magazines are written in a more popular style and aimed at a general audience. The term “journals” is used for scholarly research publications. (Librarians use the term “periodicals” to include both magazines and journals.) Often journals are peer-reviewed, which means that the articles are read by a number of scholars in the field before being approved for publication. There are thousands of journals, magazines, and newspapers published annually. Instead of leafing through journals, magazines, and newspapers themselves, you can consult a periodical database to find out what articles have appeared on a given topic.

Before the Internet, printed indexes listed articles by subject headings. Entries included author, title of article, magazine or journal title, volume, issue, and page numbers. Given the researching habits of today’s scholars and students, it’s highly likely that your library has incorporated online resources into their collections. Produced by the same publishers who once provided print indexes, these online databases are proprietary and you will probably need to go through an authorization procedure in order to use them when you are off-campus. Check with your library to find out the procedures you need to follow.

Full-Text Databases

Not every article ever published is available with full text online. Some databases provide indexing only. However, even those services can be useful. If you have enough time, you can look first in your own library to see if the articles are available and then ask about the possibility of using interlibrary loan services to obtain the articles.

Databases can be searched by author, title, keywords, or subject headings (or descriptors). Increasingly, full-text PDFs are available for you to download, although it’s important to keep in mind that planning ahead is the best policy; most university libraries have a lag-time of about one year before converting print to online text/PDFs (meaning that the most up-to-date academic journal articles, for instance, may only be available in the print version until a year or so after their publication).

If you have never used a computerized index, then you will probably come away shocked and delighted by their potential. Rather than shuffling through mountains of books and periodicals and becoming distracted by tangential or irrelevant ideas, you can sift through a world of information in minutes by accessing the appropriate databases.

Using Databases: Periodical Indexes and Abstracts. Authored by: Joseph Moxley. Provided by: Writing Commons. Located at: http://writingcommons.org/open-text/information-literacy/library-and-internet-research/using-databases/737-using-databases-periodical-indexes-and-abstracts. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

Researching Literature

O’Brien, J. Primary and Secondary Sources Short Tutorial. [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pup5eVSbGkE

Summary

Both primary and secondary sources will be valuable to you as a researcher of literature. Primary source documents provide in the moment accounts of events through memoirs, journals, social media posts, legislation, and original creative works. Secondary source documents provide critique, commentary, and amplification for primary sources. As a reader, researcher, and writer, both primary and secondary sources can help us see the big picture. As long as you are working from reliable, accurate sources, you can trust that a combination of primary and secondary sources will give you a good foundation from which you can write your own literary criticism.

When researching literature, you have a number of worthwhile resources at your fingertips through the library and its online databases. Databases provide you with unprecedented access to articles written all over the world, and though not all of them will be available as full-text PDFs, your librarians can help you track them down with enough planning ahead. Remember that though you have access to these great resources online, your librarians are still your best resource when it comes to find sources and understanding databases.