English 089: Asian American Women's Writing

http://www.lib.unc.edu/coursepages/engl/F09_engl089_001.html

Tommy Nixon
Humanities Reference Librarian
Davis Library
tommy_nixon@unc.edu

Davis Reference Desk
(919)962-1151

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Introduction to Library Research

Citing Information Tutorial

How Do I? Cite Sources? Conduct a Literature Review, etc.?

Get Help Writing a Paper, etc.

This Library of Congress classification system holds true for any library in the world using the LC system. For example, English language dictionaries will be classed in the PEs; American literature will be in the PSs; and American ethnic groups will be classed in the range E184-185 within the broader E class for American history.

Use this Map to find books in Davis Reference.

Use this Location Guide to find books in Davis.

Through the Carolina BLU Delivery Service, you can request to have books and articles available at any of the UNC-CH campus libraries, as well as books and articles requested through interlibrary loan, delivered to the campus library most convenient to you.

Asian American Net

AsianWeek: The Voice of Asian America

The Journal of Asian American Studies (Project Muse)

AsianAmericanFilm.com

Minority Literatures, Voice of the Shuttle (U.C. Santa Barbara)

MELUS

 Example of an academic journal article (click on the camera icon to view)

As with encyclopedic resources, there are indexes for almost any topic that might be supplemental to literary research, and these may be arranged by subject discipline(history, philosophy, religion, art, etc), by period, or by region. If you are unsure of an appropriate index to use, try searching E-Research Tools By Subject and first try the "Recommended Databases."
Also, there are a number of Subject Guides for Literature that may prove useful for finding book reviews, play production reveiws, etc.

MLA International Bibliography
A major index of literary criticism, linguistics, folklore & cultural studies. In addition to indexing several thousand journals, MLA also covers relevant books, book chapters, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. MLA is a very ambitious index, providing indexing of criticism for all literatures worldwide.
MLA now links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse, two major full-text journal collections.

Literary Reference Center
A good starting point for plot summaries, biographical information on authors, and some literary criticism (much of it full text). Use the Advanced Search.

Ethnic NewsWatch
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. This collection of articles, editorials, columns, reviews, etc. provides a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints.

GenderWatch
A full-text collection of international journals, magazines, newsletters, regional publications, special reports and conference proceedings devoted to women's and gender issues.

Film & Television Literature Index
Useful for finding film reviews.

rottentomatotes.com
Useful for film reviews. Search film title, then pick "top critics."

Literature Resource Center
LRC contains the text of the Dictionary of Literary Biography, as well as selected critical excerpts or full text articles from various Gale criticism sets. It is possbile in LRC to search for authors individually or to perform a "Person Search," limiting by period, movement, nationality, etc. The Dictionary of Literary Biography provides bio-critical articles on literary authors. The ongoing print version of the DLB (Davis Reference Row 3 PS21 .D5185 1978 - To Date) provides much excellent illustrative material not available in the electronic version.

Academic Search Premier
Abstracts & references for articles from more than 8,200 scholarly, trade & general publications. A very broad, interdisciplinary index linking to much full text, Academic Search Premier is less specialized for literary criticism than MLA but good for book reviews, play & film reviews, etc. since about 1980.

Dissertations & Theses
Indexes US dissertations from 1861 to as recent as last semester with full text available from 1997 on. Masters' theses are covered more selectively and some full text is available. Citations for dissertations from 1980 on include 350-word abstracts, while masters' theses from 1988 forward have 150 word abstracts. The database covers work done at more than a thousand institutions, primarily in the United States but also in Canada and Great Britain, and at other European universities for recent years.

More Article Databases |  How Do I Find Articles? | How Do I Find an Article if it is not Full-Text?  | How Do I Distinguish Different Types of Journals?

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 Example of an academic book

Subject searching for books in the Library's catalog is often best done by beginning with a Keyword Search . Start with a Keyword Search and identify one or more relevant books. Then look at the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) given in the Full Records of those titles. You can follow the subject heading links in the catalog to find similar books, or you can use the terms in the subject headings to revise your search strategies.

Keyword Search: transracial adoption america

Search by LC Subject Heading: Interracial adoption--United States.

POTENTIALLY USEFUL LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBJECT HEADINGS

American drama--Asian American authors.

American literature--Asian American authors--History and criticism.

American poetry--Asian American authors.

Asian American women.

Asian American women in literature.

Asian Americans--Intellectual life.

Asian Americans in literature.

Asian Americans in motion pictures.

Asians in mass media.

Ethnicity in literature.

Filipino American women.

Intercountry adoption--United States.

Korean American women.

South Asian American women.

South Asian Americans.

Vietnamese American women.

Useful series: Asian American history and culture.

Search for books By a literary author as an Author search; search for books About a literary author as a Subject search.

Author: Jen, Gish.

Subject: Jen, Gish..

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Subject encyclopedias can be very useful for providing an overview and context for a variety of specialized topics. Most essays will also include a bibliography. A number of reference books from Oxford U. Press are now available electronically via Oxford Reference Online Premium.

Asian American writers . Edited by Deborah L. Madsen. Detroit : Thomson Gale, c2005.
Has essays on Gish Jen & Yamanaka. Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 312.
Davis Reference Row 3 PS21 .D5185 v. 312

Asian American playwrights [electronic resource] : a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook . Edited by Miles Xian Liu. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2002.
Has an essay on Diana Son.
Davis Reference PS338.A74 A9 2002

The Greenwood encyclopedia of multiethnic American literature. 5 vols. Edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2005.
In addition to having essays on Jen & Yamanaka, this has essays on various ethnic groups, e.g., South Asian writers, Japanese American writers, etc.
Davis Reference PS153.M56 G74 2005

An interethnic companion to Asian American literature . Editor, King-Kok Cheung. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997.
In addition to topical essays (e.g., identity crisis & gender politics), this includes essays on literatures of the following groups: Chinese Americans; Filipino Americans; Japanese Americans; Korean Americans; South Asian Americans; & Vietnamese Americans.
Davis Reference PS153.A84 I58 1997

The Greenwood encyclopedia of American poets and poetry . 5 vols. Jeffrey Gray, editor ; James McCorkle and Mary McAleer Balkun, associate editors. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2006.
In addition to entries for individual poets, this contains an essay on Asian American poetry.
Davis Reference PS303 .G74 2006

Transnational adoption : a cultural economy of race, gender, and kinship . Sara K. Dorow. New York : New York University Press, c2006.
Davis HV875.58.C6 D67 2006

BirthMarks [electronic resource] : transracial adoption in contemporary America . Sandra Patton. New York : New York University Press, 2000.
Davis HV875.64 .P37 2000

Asian American Drama
Asian American Drama brings together more than 250 plays representing the various ethnicities within the Asian American community. Along with many works by writers of Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Chinese descent, the collection includes plays by writers of Hawaiian, Indian, Thai, Korean, Persian, and Malaysian ancestry, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information.

The Oxford dictionary of literary terms [electronic resource]Chris Baldick. 3rd ed. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2008.

A handbook to literature. William Harmon. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson Prentice Hall, c2009.
A very clearly written handbook.
Davis Reference Desk PN41 .H355 2009

MLA handbook for writers of research papers. Joseph Gibaldi. 7th ed. New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2009.
Davis Reference Desk LB2369 .G53 2009

Oxford English Dictionary
A comprehensive dictionary of the English Language that stresses the historical origins of words. The Oxford English Dictionary is the world's leading authority on the history and development of the English language since 1150.