LSC-Montgomery Resource Guides: ENGL 1302: Writing about Victorian Literature: Research Paper

Service Hours

Resources

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From the Readings List, select an essay to analyze. Study the piece critically. What was the author’s background and what influence, if any, did that have on the piece? Subject the essay to some rhetorical analysis (video regarding writing a rhetorical analysis essay is included in your assignment folder for your reference). Consider the context and audience for which the essay was originally written. If applicable, does the topic have a broader scope than just the Victorian Era; does it have any relevance to what preceded or followed this time period? Perhaps you see a correlation to current events and can make the case for the essay’s universal application. Just be careful not to forget your main focus, which is to perform a critical analysis of the essay you select. If you wish to consult scholarly commentary about the essay, you are more than welcome to do so; just be sure to document appropriately. Be thorough.

Video Tutorials

Below are video tutorials to help you navigate some of the library resources.

Reference Databases

The following resource will provide you some resources for background information. Doing background research will not only help you narrow your focus, but will also help you identify keywords to use when searching the databases for scholarly articles.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Includes materials from over 650 reference books on many topics in higher education, including art, business, history, languages, literature, science, criminal justice, and political science.
The CORS platform also will allow students to easily search other sources, such as the library catalog and major research databases. Included are access to “mind maps”, a “tools” page (dictionary, images, etc), and the record tools (citations, translations, etc). Credo also serves as a limited discovery tool in that it connects the student’s search with some of our current databases and our catalog.

Switch out keyword examples for class/assignment

Boolean Operators

Using Boolean operators in a database is highly recommended, as this approach usually generates the most useful results. Databases are not "intuitive" like search engines (e.g., Google) - they must be "told" how to process a search query. Boolean operators let you "tell" the database what you want to see in your results.

AND

Use AND to connect KEYWORDS - Retrieves sources with both/all terms [refines search]

Example: diabetes AND adult AND self-management

Use OR to connect SYNONYMS & LIKE CONCEPTS - Retrieves sources with either/any term(s) [broadens search]

Example: heart attack AND (female OR women) AND symptoms

NOT

Use NOT to EXCLUDE word(s) - Eliminates sources with the word(s) following NOT

Example: Omega-3 fatty acids NOT fish oils

Identifying Keywords

When you are conducting your background research on your topic, consider the who, what, when, where and why of what you are reading, and highlight or write the main points down. You can use those as keywords in the databases!

Who, what, when, where and why

Research Databases

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Complete historical full text of all issues of journals in a wide range of humanities and social science fields.
Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new window
Essays and criticism examining the lives of great authors and their works.
Gale Literature Criticism: Short Story Criticism This link opens in a new window
Presents full-text literary criticism on the works of short-story writers of all nations, cultures, and time periods. Critical essays are selected from leading sources, including published journals, magazines, books, reviews, diaries, newspapers, pamphlets, and scholarly papers.
Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Criticisms, synopses, and reviews of authors and their works, full text poems, short stories, and classic novels, as well as full text from over 400 literary journals.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Full text of articles from journals, magazines and newspapers, plus image collections. Users can limit results to scholarly material.
Gale Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Quickly access articles from a database of scholarly journals and other trusted periodicals. Best for academic research.
Gale Literature Criticism This link opens in a new window
Explore the most extensive compilation of literary commentary available. Includes analysis from book excerpts, periodicals, and more.
Gale Literature: LitFinder This link opens in a new window
Access literary works and authors throughout history, including full-text poems, plays, short stories, speeches, and more.

Ebook Databases

Ebook Central (LSCS) This link opens in a new window
(ProQuest) Over 100,000 ebook titles covering a full range of academic topics. General reference works are also included.
EBSCO eBook Collection (LSCS) This link opens in a new window
Search complete electronic books. Set up a free account and download to your PC, Mac, Nook, Sony, Android, iPhone, or iPad.

The British Library
We are the national library of the United Kingdom and give access to the world’s most comprehensive research collection. We provide information services to academic, business, research and scientific communities. Our collection of over 170 million items includes artefacts from every age of written civilisation. We keep the nation’s archive of printed and digital publications, adding around three million new items to our collection every year.
Discovering Literature: Romantics & Victorians
This interactive website from The British Library features numerous articles on various Victorian works of literature and authors, including: Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and The Brontës.
Literary Criticism on the Internet
Covers criticism of works from the 19th and 20th centuries. LiteraryHistory.com chosen by the New York Public Library as one of 25 "Best of Reference 2003."
Women in the Literary Marketplace
An online exhibit from the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell U, contains short entries on several Victorian women authors and their typical themes, information about the publishing context, and some images of first editions.
The Victorian Web
Originally begun back in 1987 as a means of helping scholars and students see connections between different fields, the site today has greatly expanded the kinds of connections one can find in Victorian literature and Victorian society.
Great Writers Inspire
This collection of freely available literary resources is aimed at students from sixth-form to university, their teachers, and at lifelong learners. It contains lectures, eBooks and contextual essays for reuse by individuals and the educational community.
Victorian Women Writers Project
The Victorian Women Writers Project (VWWP) began in 1995 at Indiana University and is primarily concerned with the exposure of lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century. The collection represents an array of genres - poetry, novels, children's books, political pamphlets, religious tracts, histories, and more. VWWP contains scores of authors, both prolific and rare.

The Bronte Society
The Bronte Society, founded in 1893, is responsible for running the, once the home of the Brontë family and also for promoting the Brontës' literary legacy within contemporary society.
The Samuel Butler Project
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and St John’s College, Cambridge University, the project is a catalogue of the Samuel Butler Collection and is accessible to researchers, schools and the public.
Darwin Correspondence Project
Founded in 1974 through Cambridge University, The Darwin Correspondence Project is an independently funded research team. They locate and research letters written by and to the evolutionary scientist, Charles Darwin (1809–1882), and publish complete transcripts together with contextual notes and articles.
RLS Website
The most comprehensive web resource dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson, designed for all: academics, school children and everybody interested in learning about RLS.
Trollope Society
The Trollope Society exists, with a world-wide membership, to promote and publish the works of Anthony Trollope, to provide a forum for the exploration of all aspects of his life, and to encourage the reading and enjoyment of his fiction for future generations.

To view, select the video below and enter your library barcode number or myLoneStar Username and Password Login. Additional videos can be accessed through the library's Video Databases.

The City and the Soul
This absorbing series ventures deep into the heart of 19th century Britain to explore how the gothic style rose from ridicule to define the era. It is a period synonymous with progress. But at the same time, a group of men and women seemingly spurned the modern age, turning to the medieval past as a source of inspiration. From Horace Walpole to John Ruskin to Bram Stoker, this is the story of how an old, derided style of architecture became a defining characteristic of the Victorian age and was as important as the Romantic and Modernist movements that it bridged. Discover how the gothic style went from vulgar to the height of fashion; how it first symbolised tradition before becoming the hallmark of industrial progress; and how it gave voice to the savage horrors of the time.
The Victorian Age
This program offers literary and historical insight into key Victorian themes. Charles Dickens is featured as the central Victorian novelist and his social themes are examined in depth. Students survey the range of Victorian thought and tradition in excerpts from Browning, Arnold, Tennyson, Carlyle and Ruskin. Dickens's impact on his time and on the novel itself is considered.
The Bronte Sisters
Examines the lives of Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, and the influence of Lord Byron, John Martin, and their Aunt Branwell on their literary careers.
Samuel Butler and Utopian Technologies
Shift your attention from rural American utopias to explore from a different perspective: Victorian anxieties about technology and the vanishing frontier. Analyze these fears in Samuel Butler's Erewhon, which utilizes utopian conventions and heavy doses of satire to critique religion, health, education, and humanity's increasingly complex relationship to machines.
Charles Darwin: Evolution's Voice
Discusses the life, accomplishments, and impact of the great naturalist, Charles Darwin, from his historic voyage on the Beagle to his personal anguish over publicizing his finding.
Charles Dickens
The work of Dickens is forever associated with Victorian England. The imprisonment of his father for debt gave him a trenchant insight into the world of the poor; his later involvement with projects for the betterment of man and the emotional strength of his novels derive from his first-hand experience.
George Eliot
Examines the life of Mary Anne Evans, who wrote under the name of George Eliot. Her work as an editor of the Westminster Review and the influence of her long-term liaison with George Henry Lewes are discussed.
Thomas Hardy
Pieces that were known to be Hardy's favorite folk tunes embellish this program which faithfully documents his life and his literature.
The Adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson, Episode 1
The true-life adventures of author Robert Louis Stevenson often outdid the escapades of his famous fictional creations. A sickly provincial middle-class boy, destined to follow in his family's engineering dynasty, Stevenson somehow managed to break free to live a life of travel and unbridled imagination. For much of his twenties he rebelled, living a Bohemian life across the world with a fascinating band of misfits and troubadours, in search of the adventures that would provide the inspiration for his stories. He died in Samoa aged just 44, leaving behind three of the world's most memorable classics. Dramatisations of Stevenson's extraordinary life form the narrative backbone of the film, backed up by photographs, interviews with experts and, of course, his enduring literary legacy.