Home - LIT 1000 - Introduction to Literature, Prof. Rivers

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This research guide will explain how to find and cite library materials appropriate for your literature assignments for Professor Rivers.

Select the tabs at the top to explore additional topics in detail.

Database and Catalog Search

Works Cited - MLA 8 Format Tutorial

This 7 minute video tutorial will walk you through formatting a Works Cited page that already includes database generated citations.

Note: Adding a running head is not covered in this tutorial. It was omitted to save time as this video was created to be one in a series made by various librarians. The running head on a works cited page, in MLA's 8th edition, should consist of your last name and page number, aligned to the right corner in the header.

Contacting Your Instructor

Professor: Bryan Rivers

BRivers@polk.edu

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Recommended Databases

The databases below can help you critique poems, short stories, and plays. They may include plot summaries, synopses and work overviews, articles of literary criticism, author biographies, full text of literary journals, book reviews, classic & contemporary poems, classic & contemporary short stories, full text of classic novels, author interviews, and images of key literary figures.

Hover over the "i" to learn more about a particular database.

Columbia Granger's World of Poetry This poetry on-line resource contains 250,000 full text poems and 450,000 citations, as well as poetry commentary, poets' biographies, and literary glossary terms.
Gale Literature (Gale) Formerly "Artemis Literary Sources". Whether you're researching authors and their works, literary movements or genres, or trying to find book reviews of bestsellers, you can search across all of your library's Gale literary databases to find full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism and analysis, reviews, author biographies, and a rich collection of expertly written work overviews.
Lit Finder (Gale) Includes access to three databases: Poem Finder, Story Finder, and Essay/Speech/Play Finder. LitFinder brings together the largest, most comprehensive and most current international poetry and story database available. Includes thousands of full-text short stories plus explanations, biographies, pictures and more. Included speeches represent the finest examples of recorded oratory. Over 1,000 complete plays cover the range of dramatic expression from many countries, including one-act plays, puppet plays, Harlinquinades, tragedies, gothic, childrens, religious, romantic, historical, childrens and comedic plays.
Literary Reference Center Plus (EBSCO) This resource includes plot summaries, synopses and work overviews; articles of literary criticism; author biographies; full text of literary journals; book reviews; classic & contemporary poems; classic & contemporary short stories; full text of classic novels; author interviews; and images of key literary figures. Combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing.
Salem Literature (Salem Press) Contains the full text of printed reference sets purchased by the library. Includes selections from Magill's Literary Annuals, and the Critical Insights and Critical Surveys series.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) For this class, only use this database to locate journal articles from the journal "Explicator". In the top search box enter the name of the poem, in the second the name of the poet, and in the third the word Explicator changing "Select a Field" to "SO Journal Name". Lastly, check the check box for "full text" then select "search".

Recommended for biographical information:

Biography (Gale in Context) (Gale) Contains contextual information on the world's most influential people. Merges Gale's authoritative reference content (including Lives & Perspectives) with periodicals and multimedia organized into a user-friendly portal experience while also allowing users to search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender as well as keyword and full text.
Bloom's Literature (Infobase Publishing) Rich with relevant content on core authors and works most studied.
Gale E-Books (Gale) Offers more than 85 reference sources including encyclopedias, series and more. Provides respected authoritative essays on varied topics from numerous subject areas. Search across a single eBook or an entire eBook collection.

The Cambridge Introduction to Modernist Poetry by Peter Howarth
ISBN: 9780521764476
Publication Date: 2011-11-10
Modernist poems are some of the twentieth-century's major cultural achievements, but they are also hard work to read. This wide-ranging introduction takes readers through modernism's most famous poems and some of its forgotten highlights to show why modernists thought difficulty and disorientation essential for poetry in the modern world. In-depth chapters on Pound, Eliot, Yeats and the American modernists outline how formal experiments take on the new world of mass media, democracies, total war and changing religious belief. Chapters on the avant-gardes and later modernism examine how their styles shift as they try to re-make the community of readers.
A Companion to Modernist Poetry by Gail McDonald (Editor); David E. Chinitz (Editor)
ISBN: 9780470659816
Publication Date: 2014-06-23
A Companion to Modernist Poetry provides readers with detailed discussions of individual poets, schools and movements within modernist poetry, and the cultural and historical context of the modernist period. Provides an in-depth and accessible summary of the latest trends in the study of modernist poetry. Balances discussion of individual poets, schools, and movements with in-depth literary and historical context. Brings recent scholarship to bear on the subject of modernist poetry while also providing guidance on poets who are historically important.
The Postmodern Short Story by Farhat Iftekharrudin (Editor); Joseph Boyden (Editor); Mary Rohrberger (Editor); Jaie Claudet (Editor)
ISBN: 9780313323751
Publication Date: 2003-12-30
This book examines postmodern forms and characteristic themes by analyzing a group of short stories that make use of postmodern narrative strategies, including nonfictional fiction, gender profiling, and death as an image. The volume begins with a discussion of the blurred lines between fiction and nonfiction in the short story and imaginative personal essay. It then looks at the role of women in works by such authors as Sandra Cisneros, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lorrie Moore. This is followed by a section of chapters on postmodern masculinity and short fiction. The next section focuses on death as an image and theme in works by Richard Ford, Richard Brautigan, and James Joyce.
Masterpieces of 20th-Century American Drama by Susan C. W. Abbotson
ISBN: 9780313332234
Publication Date: 2005-09-30
American playwrights have made enormous contributions to world drama during the last century. This reference introduces 10 of the most important modern American plays read by students. An introductory essay concisely overviews modern American drama, and each of the chapters that follow examines a particular play. Among the plays discussed are Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," and August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Each chapter includes a biography, a plot summary, an analysis of the play's themes, characters, and dramatic art, and a review of its historical background and reception. Chapters list works for further reading, and the volume closes with a selected, general bibliography.
Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations by Harold Bloom
ISBN: 9781438138060
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Critical essays reflecting a variety of schools of criticism. - Notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index. - An introductory essay by Harold Bloom.
Wandering into Brave New World by David Leon Higdon
ISBN: 9789042037168
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Wandering into Brave New World explores the historical contexts and contemporary sources of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel which, seventy years after its initial publication remains the best known and most discussed dystopian work of the twentieth century. New research allows substantive answers and even explains why Huxley linked such figures as Henry Ford and Sigmund Freud. It also shows how the novel overcomes its intense grounding in 1920s political turmoil to escape into the timelessness of dystopian fiction.

The Cambridge Companion to American Poets by Mark Richardson (Editor)
Call Number: Polk/Winter Haven Circulation (PS303 .C287 2015)
ISBN: 9781107560789
Publication Date: 2015-10-14
The Cambridge Companion to American Poets brings together thirty-one essays on some fifty-four American poets, spanning nearly 400 years, from Anne Bradstreet to contemporary performance poetry. This book also examines such movements in American poetry as modernism, the Harlem (or New Negro) Renaissance, 'confessional' poetry, the Black Mountain School, the New York School, the Beats, and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry.
How Plays Work by Martin Meisel
Call Number: Polk/Winter Haven Circulation (PN1721 .M45 2007)
ISBN: 9780199215492
Publication Date: 2007-08-23
Cultivated in tone and jargon-free, How Plays Work is illuminated by dozens of judiciously chosen examples from western drama - from classical Greek dramatists to contemporary playwrights, both canonical and relatively obscure. It will appeal as much to the serious student of the theatre as to theplaygoer who likes to read a play before seeing it performed.
Mark Twain: a study of the short fiction by Tom Quirk
Call Number: Polk/Winter Haven Circulation (PS1338 .Q57 1997)
ISBN: 0805708677
Publication Date: 1997-07-11
"Tom Quirk's study provides a comprehensive analysis of the comic genius and narrative originality that makes Mark Twain's short fiction a cornerstone of the American literary tradition. Quirk's presentation of Twain's career as a writer of short fiction is complemented with selections of Twain's essays rounds out this balanced and informative work."
Readings on a Brave New World by Katie De Koster
Call Number: PR6015.U9 B677 1999
ISBN: 1565108353
Publication Date: 1999-03-01
Aldous Huxley's satirical novel presents a grim picture of humanity. The book's major themes are explored and its prophecies are examined.
Bioethics in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World by Dedria Bryfonski (Editor)
Call Number: PR6015.U9 B6726 2010
ISBN: 0737748079
Publication Date: 2010-02-26
In his novel Brave New World, writer Aldous Huxley extends the intersection of community and science to a dystopian conclusion: an entire world built upon the principles of Henry Ford's automobile assembly lines. This volume offers an in-depth examination of bioethics as presented in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, as well as contemporary perspectives on this issue. Essay topics include the misuse of science for power gains, the balance of good and evil inherent in certain scientific endeavors, the ethics of designer babies, the promotion and restriction of stem cell research, and the relationship between genetic science and civil liberties.
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World by Harold Bloom (Editor, Introduction by)
Call Number: PR6015.U9 B65 1996
ISBN: 0791040550
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
-- Presents concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on a specific literary work -- Provides multiple sources for book reports and term papers with a wealth of information on literary works, authors, and major characters -- Digests of critical extracts prefaced by headnotes
Brave New World: a Graphic Novel by Aldous Huxley; Fred Fordham
Call Number: Polk/Winter Haven Graphic Novels: GRAPH PN6737.F673 B73 2022
ISBN: 9780063055254
Publication Date: 2022-04-19
Originally published in 1932, Brave New World has enthralled and terrified millions of readers for decades and now it has been reborn for a new age. In Brave New World: A Graphic Novel Fred Fordham's aesthetically reimagined adaptation brings Huxley's powerful work to life. Fordham has captured the surreal imagery and otherworldly backdrop of the story through brilliantly rendered illustrations.

Accessing the Polk State College Library Databases

To access the Library's databases, start at the Library's homepage (https://www.polk.edu/library-tlcc-tutoring/).

From there, select the link for Articles/Databases.

The list of all PSC databases will appear--arranged alphabetically. You can also view the databases arranged by subject area by selecting the "All Subjects" dropdown near the top.

After selecting a specific database, you will be prompted to sign in.

Students: Use your Passport information - Student ID number and Password (default: two-digit month and two-digit year of your birth).

Staff/Faculty: Use your Polk email address and password

If you are having difficulty signing in with your Passport credentials, try clearing the cookies/cache in your browser OR try using a different browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox, etc...). This will fix the problem about 90% of the time.

Gale & Ebsco Tutorials

Gale Tutorial
EBSCO Database Tutorial

You will notice many of our databases say Gale or Ebsco at the end of their names. Most of those databases have similar search features and tool boxes.

In your ENC1101 classes you learned how to search in Academic OneFile (Gale) and Academic Search Complete (EBSCO). For a quick refresher on searching in Gale, select the link below.

For tips & tricks on using the Gale databases Click Here!