Lit 203 World Literature to 1650   Tags: lit_203, literature, world_literature  

World Literature I consists of the study of world authors to the sixteenth century. Students read works including Gilgamesh, selections from the Old and New Testaments, the Ramayana, and writings of authors such as Homer, Aeschylus, Li Po, Dante, Shakespeare and Sor Juana.

This guide will help you find critical and informative sources relevant to these authors and time period.

• Literature Resource Center (GALE) covers all genres, disciplines, time periods and regions of the world.  Try the Advanced Search, which allows you to type in an author, title and keyword all at once. Watch this short video to see how to search.
• Literary Reference Center (EBSCO) combines information from more than 1,000 books, literary encyclopedias and reference works, and hundreds of literary journals.
• Bloom's Literary Reference Online contains author biographies, critical essays and character descriptions.  This resource is excellent for finding background information about your author.  Search your author's name in quotes.
• The Gale Literary Index will guide you to literary criticism and biographies in the 32 literary print series by Gale Research.  Search your author or work, then look up the titles in the library catalog to see if BCC owns them.
• JSTOR is an archival database of fifty-eight scholarly journals on language and literature. 

Search Tip:  Remember to use quotation marks around titles and phrases; e.g., "holy scriptures."  If you don't find what you need, modify your search or try another source. 

Of the "Frequently Used Databases," Academic Search Premier and ProQuest Research Library are the best for finding literary sources.  Use one or two keywords to start.  Use the connector "and" to search for multiple words; e.g., "Genesis and creation."

Take a look at our Guide to Literary Research for instructions on how to find various sources of criticism in the library's collection.