Biographies, bibliographies and full-text critical analysis of authors from all genres and eras, including the contents of Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Over 650,000 biographical entries covering international figures from all time periods and areas of study; search by name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender.
Over 1,100 entries on the history, theory, technique, and criticism of poetry, including coverage of more than 100 nations, regions, and languages. (2012)
Separated into four key sections, the volume covers: the history of World Literature through significant writers and theorists; the disciplinary relationship of World Literature to areas such as philology, translation, globalization and diaspora studies; theoretical issues in World Literature including gender, politics and ethics; a global perspective on the politics of World Literature.
Offers a comprehensive overview of the poetry of the period in its literary and historical contexts. The essays consider its metrical, formal, and linguistic features; its relation to history; its influence on other genres; its reflections of empire and nationalism; and the implications of oral transmission and the rapid expansion of print culture and mass readership.
Features discussions of key concepts such as history, class, gender, and science as well as thorough accounts of central literary genres and key literary texts in the light of recent theoretical developments.
From the conjectured identity of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets to the misprints in the First Folio, from Shakespeare's favorite figures of speech to the staging of Othello in South Africa, a team of 100 internationally renowned scholars provides a lucid, stimulating, and authoritative guide to Shakespeare's plays and poems, and their interpretation around the world over the last four centuries. Special feature entries on every play are included.
A great starting point for research on poets, providing analyses and development of the poet's work with brief discussions of specific poems. Excellent annotated bibliographies for nearly 700 poets.
A cross-cultural reference, encompassing eras from the ancient Greece of Aesop's fables to the modern America of Toni Morrison. Subject categories are diverse, including authors, genres, terms, and specific works, organized alphabetically, but accessible through a category list and a detailed index as well
For almost twenty years the starting place for literary research has been the Literary Research Guide--the place to look, for example, if someone were working on a paper on the influence of the 19th century drug culture on Edgar Allan Poe and wanted to know whether someone else had already done this.