The Sheridan Libraries

French Language and Literature

Resources, both online and elsewhere, for the French language and literature.

	Books, articles, reference sources, stuff on the web - it's all good. Read on to learn more about solid literary research.

You can search for a writer as a SUBJECT.
- The format is: last name, first name, birth date-death date.
- Ex.: Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922
There will be many subheadings under an author's name.
- The most useful is "Criticism and interpretation".
For well-known works, one of the subheadings under an author's name will be the title of a work.
- Ex.: Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922 À la recherche du temps perdu.

The MLA International Bibliography is your best database.
- Authors' names are Subjects, or Descriptors, in this database.
- The MLA International Bibliography is particular about how you enter the name though.
  - Last name, first name is best. Otherwise you may retrieve nothing.
  - You can also put last name in one box and 1st name in another.
There are other databases you can try too. Use an author's name as your search.

For many authors there will be a volume in Cambridge Companions. Or cross search the entire archive.
Oxford Scholarship Online is another cross-searchable database.
LION has good basic information on writers.
- The e-texts portion of LION is English-language works.
- But the criticism and reference components treat writers of many nationalities.
Artemis Literary Sources (Gale) also has good basic information on writers.
- It will give overviews of works and critical articles on writers.
Search the library catalog for handbooks (sometimes called an Encyclopedia, or Dictionary).
Another possibility is the MLA series "Approaches to teaching".

There are many good Web sites on individual authors.
- A Google search should bring them up.
- Typically, they have good bibliographies of primary, and sometimes secondary, works.
- They also have biographical information.
Wikipedia usually has good introductory articles on writers, often with good references and links.
- Ex. Stendhal

Subjects: International and Area Studies, Literature