English 127 : Shakespeare, Bodies of Rhetoric

English 127
Shakespeare : Bodies of Rhetoric

Miniature portrait by Nicholas Hilliard, 1594.
Watercolor on vellum on card with three hearts showing on verso.
Height: 4.1 cm (1.61 inches)
Width: 3.25 cm (1.28 inches)
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University.

Developing a Search Strategy

Finding Books

Finding Resources Online

Finding Images and Archival Material

Evaluating Sources

Citing Sources

Research and Reference Help

Developing a Search Strategy

A search strategy is the process of finding information in a logical, step-by-step manner. Using a search strategy insures that you will find the information and materials you need as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Research Steps:

Choose your topic
Find background information
Find books on your topic
Find periodical articles
Find networked resources or relevant Web sites
Evaluate your sources
Cite your sources

For more information about library research strategy and using library resources, consult:

Research Strategy: a tutorial

The Seven Steps of the Research Process

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Cornell Study Guides

Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies : A Guide to Research
English Literature : A Guide to Reference Sources
Selected Resources in Theater
Selected Reference Sources in Women’s Studies
Other Subject Research Guides in the Humanities

Finding Books

Click on the image to connect to the Cornell Library online catalog:

About the CU Library Catalog
The Cornell University Library Catalog includes the holdings of 19 Cornell University libraries. The catalog contains records for books, computer files, government documents, manuscripts and archives, maps, musical scores, periodicals, serials, sound recordings, and visual materials. CU Library Catalog Help Pages
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Interlibrary Loan Services
If Cornell Library does not have an item you need, Use ILLiad (InterLibrary Loan Internet Accessible Database) to request that we borrow materials from other libraries.

Reference Books

Boyce, Charles. Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life and Times, and More. New York: Facts on File, 1990. Uris Ref PR 2892 .B78
A useful handbook including nearly 3,000 entries on all facets of Shakespeare’s life. For each play there is an act-by-act, scene-by-scene synopsis, a commentary, and the theatrical history of the play. There are also entries for individual characters both historical and fictional, major character types, major Shakespeare scholars and performers, and the people who influenced Shakespeare. A suggested reading section and an appendix list entries by broad categories.
Davis, J. Madison. The Shakespeare Name Dictionary. New York : Garland, 1995. Olin Ref + PR 2892 .D26 1995; also Olin stacks
Alphabetically arranged dictionary of “every name, proper adjective, official title, literary and musical title, and place name which appears in the text of the complete plays and poems of William Shakespeare.” (Intro.)
Evans, Gareth and Barbara Lloyd Evans. The Shakespeare Companion. New York: Scribner’s, 1978. Uris Ref PR 2976 .E92 1978
A handbook to the Shakespearean theatre. Divided into four sections: 1) The Man and his Times, 2) Shakespeare in Performance, 3)The Works and 4) Stratford upon Avon and Shakespeare. Section III is particularly useful for its discussions of specific productions of the plays, both on stage and film. Useful features include a glossary of difficult words used in the plays and numerous illustrations and photographs.
Harmon, William. A Handbook to Literature. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2003. Olin Ref PN 41 .H355x 2003
This "handbook" is really a dictionary of literary terms and concepts. Entries range in length from a few sentences to several pages. Many provide references for further reading. An index of proper names atthe end of the volume cites the entries within which these names appear.

Olsen, Kirstin. All Things Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of Shakespeare’s World. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. 2 volumes. Uris Ref PR 2892 .O56x 2002
An excellent companion for the reader of Shakespeare that explains the world of Shakespeare’s day through entries on such subjects as falconry, etiquette, astrology, children, farming, duels, household objects, and the like. Includes a chronology of historical events referred to in Shakespeare’s plays and a topic guide.

Specialized Print Encyclopedias

Cambridge Guide to English Literature. Stapleton, Michael. New York: Cambridge UP, 1983.
Uris Ref PR l9 C17+; Olin Ref PR l9 C17+
Not to be confused with the Cambridge Guide to Literature in English [below]. A single volume guide to the literature of the English-speaking world. Covering more than a thousand years, it includes the literature of Great Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It also includes the English writing from Ireland and South Africa and contributions from the West Indies and Nigeria since World War II. Entries are for authors, individual works of litera ture, main characters in novels and plays, relevant historical events and technical literary terms. Illustrated

Cambridge History of Literary Criticism. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989- 8 vols.
Olin Ref PN86 C1
Contents: v. 1. Classical criticism / edited by George A. Kennedy -- v. 3. The Renaissance / edited by Glyn P. Norton -- v. 4. Eighteenth century / edited by H.B. Nisbet and Claude Rawson -- v. 5. Romanticism / edited by Marshall Brown -- v. 7. Modernism and the new criticism / edited by A. Walton Litz, Louis Menand, and Lawrence Rainey -- v. 8. From formalism to poststructuralism / edited by Raman Selden -- v. 9. Twentieth-century historical, philosophical and psychological perspectives / edited by Christa Knellwolf and Christopher Norris.

Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory. Payne, Michael, ed. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996.
Olin Library Reference HM 101 D55 1996
A “reference guide to modern ideas in the broad interdisciplinary fields of cultural and critical theory, which have developed from interactions among historical traditions of thought.” (Preface) Entries cover concepts, individuals, and movements that bridge the traditional boundaries between the humanities and social sciences (e.g., hermeneutics, structuralism, post-colonialism, multi-culturalism). Secondary references are provided for each. Indexed, with a general bibliography.

The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. Ed. Robert T. Francoeur. 4 volumes. New York: Continuum, 1997-2002.
Olin Reference HQ 21 .I68x 1997
An extensive source of information on comparative issues in sexuality. The country-by-country entries cover standard topics including “Homoerotic, Homosexual, and Ambisexual Behaviors” and “Cross-Gendered Persons” (sometimes entitled “Gender Conflicted Persons”).

Men and Masculinities: A Social, Cultural, and Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson. 2 volumes. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Olin Reference HQ 1090.3 .M436x 2004 +
An encyclopedia on the study of masculinity from the gender studies perspective. Indiviudal entries on the longer side with citations to titles for further reading with each entry.

Women’s Studies Encyclopedia. Ed. Helen Tierney. Revised edition. 3 volumes. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999.
Olin Reference HQ 1115 .W875 1999
“The entries ... are meant to convey information to an educated audience without expertise in the subject under discussion.... The focus, as in the first edition, is on the American experience.” [Introduction] Signed articles with brief bibliographies.

Finding Resources Online:

Two approaches to finding resources online:

Search a specific database that covers the area you are researching
Search a number of databases at the same time using Find it!

1. Search a Specific Database

Recommended Databases:

Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies-related

glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Ed. Claude J. Summers. Chicago: glbtq, Inc., 2003.
Full Text. An extensive collection of signed articles on the arts and literature. Biographical and topical entries. Articles include bibliographies.

GenderWatch.1970- . GenderWatch is a full text database of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. The database provides in-depth coverage of the subjects that are uniquely central to women’s lives, including family, childbrith, birth control, daycare, domestic abuse, work and the workplace, sexual harassment, aging, aging parents, body image, eating disorders and social and societal role.

Women’s Resources International. 1972-. An interdisciplinary database combined from Women Studies Abstracts (1984-present), Women’s Studies Database (1972-present), New Books on Women and Feminism (1987-present), Women of Color and Southern Women (1975-present), The History of Women and Science, Health, and Technology: A Bibliographic Guide to the Professions and Disciplines (1970-1995), Women’s Health and Development: An Annotated Bibliography (1995), Women, Race, and Ethnicity: A Bibliography (1970- 1990), WAVE: Women’s Audiovisuals in English: A Guide to Nonprint Resources in Women’s Studies (1985-1990). NISC will add new databases as they become available.

Literary

The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Head, Dominic, ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 2006. [1993 edition online; 2006 ed. in print at Olin Ref PR 85 C29 2006+] [Online edition restricted to Cornell]
Not to be confused with the Cambridge Guide to English Literature, this alphabetically-arranged compendium covers some of the same material, but expands its coverage to Africa, India, and other areas, and aims to include more material on contemporary literary figures. Illustrated.

MLA International Bibliography [Restricted to Cornell]
An international database providing references to scholarly articles from over 4000 journals dealing with languages, literature, folklore and linguistics. It is useful for finding literary criticism of a particular author or work, as well as articles on literary theory, women’s studies, popular culture, and performing arts.

LION (Literature online) [Restricted to Cornell]
Articles, monographs and dissertations from the Annual bibliography of English language and literature (ABELL); full-text articles from literary journals; and biographical information on widely studied authors.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online. (ECCO) [Restricted to Cornell]
A comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. When completed, the full collection will include nearly 150,000 titles and more than 33,000,000 pages of searchable material.

Literature Resource Center [Restricted to Cornell]
A complete literature reference database designed for the undergraduate student. LRC combines biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information to deliver a complete reference/resource package on authors and their works (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism). Centering on respected Gale sources, including Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Contemporary Literary Criticism, this data set is augmented with full-text, excerpted, and commissioned critical material. LRC [also] offers the Encyclopedia of Literature, The Scribner Writer Series, and American National Biography.

Oxford Companion to English Literature. [Restricted to Cornell]
Also in print: Olin Ref PR l9 O94 2000
Available online and in print. Provides brief articles on authors and literary works from all periods of English literature are arranged alphabetically in this comprehensive single volume handbook.Contains extensive cross-references. Appendices include a chronology of English literature, and lists of poets laureate and major literary award winners.

Oxford English Dictionary [Restricted to Cornell]
Second edition also available in print: Olin or Uris Reference PE1625 M98 1989
The OED presents in alphabetical series the words that have formed the English vocabulary from the time of the earliest records down to the present day, with all the relevant facts concerning their form, sense-history, pronunciation, and etymology. It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectical usage and slang. This edition contains the complete A to Z sequence of the Second Edition, its three-volume Additions Series, and also draft material from the revision programme, which represents the latest progress towards the Third Edition.