Hispanic Literature Tools, Techniques & Resources for Conducting Critical Research

Tools for Locating Primary & Secondary Sources

Books, Plays, Poetry:

BearCat (Baylor Library collections)

Teatro Español de Siglo de Oro – contains the full text of the most important dramatic works of sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain.

WorldCat (when you need to find everything an author wrote, even if we don’t own a copy of it at Baylor)

Periodical Articles/Books Written by and About Your Author (when applicable):

MLA International Bibliography – covers all languages and literatures; searchable by author, time period, literary style or genre, title of work, etc. (indexes materials in English and Spanish)

Essay and General Literature Index – lists articles published in books (as opposed to periodicals) and other collections of essays (English language materials only)

ClasePeriodica – lists articles in Latin American publications in the humanities, social sciences and sciences (Spanish and Portuguese language materials).

Fuente Academica – covers articles in scholarly journals from Spanish and Latin American publishers; covers a broad number of disciplines including literature.

Latin American Newsstand – indexes and provides full-text copy of Spanish and Portuguese language newspapers from Latin America.

Periodicals Index Online – broad subject coverage in the humanities, social sciences, and arts across more than 300 years of published work.

Techniques for Successful Searching 1. Remember to distinguish between looking for your author as an author (what he wrote) and as a subject (what is written about her and her works, life, interests, and influences) . If you divide these into two separate searches your work will usually go a bit faster. This is true for searching both BearCat and any of the periodical indices/databases listed above. 2. Search for people using the “Last name, First name” format. 3. Any subject is likely to have an encyclopedia and a dictionary relevant to your work so search in keyword index for the term you want with the word “encyclopedia” (Spanish authors

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encyclopedia). The same is true of the terms “history and criticism,” “bibliography,” and biography (Spanish American literature history and criticism). 4. For poetry you will rarely find an explication or critical article on a single poem; instead find out what collection(s) of poetry the poem appears in and search for criticism on the whole collection. To find the collection of poetry in which an individual poem appears, use the bibliography in a reference source such as Latin American Authors listed below. 5. To limit the number of results you get to a more effective and manageable number, search in the Keyword index using author’s last name and the name of the novel, play, poem, etc. (or a few keywords). A search for articles in the MLA Bibliography on honor in Lorca’s play <> would look like this:

Find: Lorca TX All Text in and Blood Wedding TX All Text in and honor TX All Text in in MLA International Bibliography Database List

N.B.: all of these terms are in the TX field so that these terms appear anywhere in the article or the article record. 6. MOST IMPORTANTLY: if you keep coming up with either nothing pertinent or too much info, please come speak with me or one of the other Reference Librarians, we can help you reduce your frustration. 7. EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: START YOUR RESEARCH NOW!!!!!!!!

General Literature Resources:

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Contemporary Authors are resources of criticism and biographical information which are available in print and electronically. Electronically, they are grouped under the heading Gale Literary Databases. Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) covers only living authors (at the time the volume was published).

Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) and Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism (NCLC) are more focused collections of excerpts from critical articles in books and journals limited to the periods indicated by their titles.

Poetry Criticism (PC) and Short Story Criticism (SSC) also excerpt critical reviews for poetry and short stories in the same manner as CLC, TCLC, and NCLC do.

Hawthorn, Jeremy. A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory. 4th ed. New York: Arnold, 2000. An essential resource because of its clear writing & comprehensive coverage.

Consider using the linked subject headings for any of these books to create your own “essential” resources list. You can use RefWorks to manage your resource list (see the RefWorks Workbook or one of the Reference Librarians or Reference Assistants at the Jones Reference Desk for help in learning or using RefWorks).

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Selected Resources in Spanish Literary Research SPA 3300 – Introduction to Hispanic Literature Call Number / Citation (MLA Style) Annotation Location Moody General Alvar, Manuel, and Luis Iñigo Madrigal. A collection of essays covering both the PQ7081.H578X traditional forms of literature (poems, 2002x Historia De La Literatura novels, plays, and epics) but also letters, chronicles, related items of the early conquest period. Provides brief Hispanoamericana: Tomo I: Epoca biographies of each author, critical analysis of the major work(s), and Colonial. 4th ed. Madrid: Cátedra. critical commentary on the social, literary, and/or thematic issues within the work(s). Articles contain footnotes and bibliographies. Moody General Davies, Catherine, ed. The Companion to A collection of essays which provides a CB226.C58x 2002 grounding in “Hispanic” studies Hispanic Studies. London: Arnold, broadly and from an interdisciplinary viewpoint – language, culture, history, cinema, literature, power, critical 2002. theory, and popular culture. Useful diagrams; succinct bibliographies of additional resources, and a timeline of key events from 1469 – 2000. Moody General Gies, David Thatcher. The Cambridge History Confining itself to Spanish literature of PQ6033.C36 2004 the Iberian peninsula, this collection of of Spanish Literature. NY: Cambridge essays by scholars most of whom are professors at major colleges and universities, is divided by period from UP, 2004. medieval to post-Franco Spain. Each article is the product of research with footnotes to primary and secondary sources. A substantial bibliography of secondary sources is provided. Jones Ref. Keller, John Esten, Rafael Aguirre, and Intended to provide a reliable guide to PQ6038 .K46 2005 factual history of Spanish literature Nicholson B. Adams. Panorama de la from the third century to the present day. Each chapter opens with a succinct historical overview then literatura española. Newark, DL: moves on to identify major authors, poets, essayists, dramatists, and Juan de la Cuesta, 2005. literary movements. Literary interpretaion is not part of this text’s intention, only historical background. Moody General Pedraza Jiménez, Felipe B., and Milagros Covers several centuries of Spanish PQ6037.P277 2000 language literature, from El Cid to late Rodríguez Cáceres. Historia Esencial 20th century poets, novelists, essayists, and dramatists. The authors aim to provide an appreciation of the De La Literatura Española e influences, forms and models, and the interrelationship of Spanish language Hispanoamericana. Madrid: Edaf, literature between the Old and the New World. Organized by periods 2000. and centuries, each chapter provides a historical and cultural overview, and

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then discusses developments in the primary genres (novel, poetry, drama, etc.), principal authors, and other movements as appropriate. Covers primary sources only with no bibliography of secondary sources. Jones Ref. Pérez, Janet and Maureen Ihire, eds. The Covering works written in Castilian PQ6055.F46 2002 Spanish this encyclopedia provides Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish information on women authors, significant female characters, literary concepts (“amante invisible”), and Literature. 2 vols. Westport: CT: discusses male authors whose work(s) include significant female protaganists Greenwood Press, 2002. or which present a negative image of women. Jones Ref. Solé, Carlos A., and Maria Isabel Abreu, eds. Mid-length (8,000 – 12,000 words) PQ7081.A1L37 synopses of an author’s life, work and 1989 Latin American Writers. 3 vols. NY: influences. Includes information about the major forms and styles, as well as an evaluation of the author’s works Scribner, 1989. and influence. Selected bibliography of primary and secondary works is provided for each author. While not a Also available electronically – look for comprehensive overview of all Latin Scribner’s Writers Series in the Electronic American writers, this work seeks to Resources Directory from the Baylor serve a function similar to that of a Libraries’ “Books, Articles and More” link. critical anthology, covering representative authors. Jones Ref. ------and Klaus Müller-Bergh, eds. Latin This volume updates information from PQ7081.A1L37 the earlier, 1989 edition, and includes 1989 Supp. 1. American Writers. Supplement. New several authors and poets who were not able to be included in the previous edition due to space limitations. You York: Scribner's Sons, 2002. will want to consult both volumes if an author appears in both. Jones Ref. Valdés, Mario J., and Djelal Kadir. Literary This multi-volume work will repay a PQ7081.A1L525 careful reading of any of its chapters or 2004 Cultures of Latin America : A sections. It’s aim is help the reader of Latin American literature explore the distinct and complex “shared history Comparative History. 3 vols. NY: of literary culture.” To this end, chapters explore literary and cultural Oxford UP, 2004. centers, books and reading, textual models, journalism, cinema, , popular culture, geography as an influence on literature and culture, language diversity, oral literature, and a host of other interdisciplinary topics. An entire section is devoted to “From the Margins of Literary History” covering indigenous cultures, race, gender, and Jewish writers. A list of “Works Cited” follows each essay, in lieu of footnotes.

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