Finding Books Finding Articles Useful Web Sites Research Tips

Welcome to the library subject research guide on Medieval Literature. This provides information on research resources on English literature from the begginings to 1500. If you have any questions, visit the Library Reference Desk, or Ask A Librarian.

 

FINDING INFORMATION FROM BOOKS

 

Use the catalog to find out which books and other media are available, on what subjects, and where they are located in Stewart Library. Many books about Medieval Literature are located on level two of the library in the General Collection and begin with the call number PN660. 

 

Use the following Library of Congress Subject Headings in the catalog

 

• Anglo-Saxons -- Intellectual life
• Civilization, Anglo-Saxon, in literature
• Civilization, Medieval, in literature
• Drama, medieval
• Epic poetry, English (Old) -- History and criticism
• English literature -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- History and criticism
• Literature, medeival
• Middle Ages--Literary collections

 

REFERENCE SOURCES ON Medieval Literature

 

Middle English Glossarial Database   Glossaries for Chaucer, Gower, and more from Harvard University.

Reference Books: There are a few books in the reference area on this subject, including resources on Chaucer in the PR1900's.

 

If we do not own a particular book or article you need, it may be available through Interlibrary Loan, or from an online bookstore. Try Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

FINDING ARTICLES IN JOURNALS, MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS

ELECTRONIC JOURNALS

• The Chaucer Review - (R) Full text articles online from Johns Hopkins' Project Muse. 
• English Literary History - (R) Full text articles online from Johns Hopkins' Project Muse. 
• Labyrinth list of scholarly publications and many other electronic journals

OTHER JOURNALS

• Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England. PR621.M65 1998 

INDEXES TO JOURNAL ARTICLES

To find articles on your topic you need to use periodical indexes. Search by subject or keyword in these indexes. For home or off campus access please use your WSU Login.

• Medieval Feminist Index - covers over 300 journals back to 1995
• MLA Bibliography- MLA Indexes articles in literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore back to 1963. Updated ten times per year. 
• Literature Resource Center - Full text critical analysis, biographies and bibliographies on over 90,000 authors from every age and literary discipline.
• Academic Search Premier- Full text articles in hundreds of magazines and journals.

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WEB SITES ON Medieval Literature

Here are some WWW sites to get you started. Most of these will take you to other links, so explore!

Meta Sites

• Google Directory: Beowulf - dozens of high use and high quality Web sites
• Google Directory: Chaucer
• Google Directory: Medieval Literature
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook - includes links to full texts of medieval sources arranged according to type
• The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies - Sponsored by Georgetown University provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies 
• Links Related to Chaucer and Medieval Studies
• Luminarium Anthology of Middle English Literature (1350-1485)
• Netserf: the Internet Connection for Medieval Resources
• Online Medieval and Classical Library - collection of important literary works of Classical and Medieval civilization. 
• The WWW Virtual Library History Index Medieval Europe
• WWW Medieval Resources 

E-Texts

• The Canterbury tales and Troilus and Criseyde - a reader friendly edition in the original words
  with modern spelling 
• Middle English Compendium - includes Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse - a collection of  fifty-four Middle English texts
• Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

Author Sites

• Chaucer Metapage - organizes and provides navigation aides for Chaucer resources on the WWW 
• Boethius -  "Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius" article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Julian of Norwich
• Lyrics to Thomas Campion Songs
• Luminarium: Sir Thomas Malory
• Sir Thomas Wyatt
• Women Writers Of The Middle Ages
• Yearbook of Langland Studies - YLS is the sole journal devoted to Piers Plowman studies.

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RESEARCH TIPS AND TECHNIQUES - A SUMMARY

• Clearly identify your information need
• Identify key words and search terms to match your topic
• Develop search statements using advanced search techniques
  • Boolean logic, adjacency searching and truncation
• Use the catalog to find books
• Use Education and Arts & Humanities article  databases to find journal articles
• Go back to the online catalog to see if the journals are in Stewart Library and where they are located
• Use Interlibrary loan to get materials that are not in Stewart Library
• Use search engines to find Web information
• Carefully evaluate the information you find for usefulness and quality
• Revise your search terms and strategy to expand or narrow your results, be creative, look in other areas
• Once you have found information from an Internet site you can Email the documents to yourself, print or save them to a floppy disk 
• Use appropriate style to document and cite research
• Ask for HELP at  Reference, via phone or email

 

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