Research Guides: ENGL 4039 Black Romanticism (Dembowitz): Reference Resources

Finding Biographical and Background Information

You can use reference sources such as encyclopedias and biographies to find information about writers from the Romantic period. Depending on how obscure your writer is, it may be more or less difficult to find information about their life.

You can also use the last few links in this list to find information about the time period, events, places, and more.

Gale Literature: Dictionary of Literary Biography
Encyclopedia of critical and biographical information about individuals in every literary field, from the Middle Ages to the present.
Oxford Reference Online
Collection of high quality reference works and dictionaries.
Oxford African American Studies Center
Covers lives and events that have shaped Black history and culture.
Access note: Limited to 1 simultaneous user.
Dictionary of Irish Biography
Biographical work on figures who have shaped Irish history and culture.
American Literature (Oxford Bibliographies Online)
Peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies and short encyclopedia entries on the subject of American Literature.
British and Irish Literature (Oxford Bibliographies Online)
Peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies and short encyclopedia entries on the subject of British and Irish Literature.

Dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
Historical dictionary covering words from across the English-speaking world by tracing word usage through quotations from a range of international English language sources.
Oxford Language Dictionaries Online
Bilingual dictionaries with native speaker pronunciations. Dictionaries include: French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, and English.
Access note: Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
Historical Thesaurus of the OED
Taxonomic index of language history, based on the Oxford English Dictionary.

Encyclopedias and Other Guides

Oxford Reference Online
Collection of high quality reference works and dictionaries.
Reference Universe
Indexes the contents of print and electronic reference works. Good for names, events, keywords, and obscure terms.
Gale eBooks
Database of encyclopedia articles and other specialized reference resources from a variety of disciplines.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
Comprehensive survey of current literary theory, including historical considerations, critics, schools, and movements.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Leading encyclopedia for philosophical concepts, written by major scholars in philosophy.

Encyclopedia of Romanticism (Routledge Revivals) by Laura Dabundo (Editor)
ISBN: 9780415563307
Publication Date: 2009
First Published in 1992, this encyclopedia is designed to survey the social, cultural and intellectual climate of English Romanticism from approximately the 1780s and the French Revolution to the 1830s and the Reform Bill. Focussing on 'the spirit of the age', the book deals with the aesthetic, scientific, socioeconomic - indeed the human - environment in which the Romantics flourished.
Romanticism by Frederick Burwick
ISBN: 9781118893098
Publication Date: 2014
Compiles 70 of the key terms most frequently used or discussed by authors of the Romantic period - and most often deliberated by critics and literary historians of the era.

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