For your research assignment in this class, you'll need to identify, read, analyze, and respond to several scholarly (peer-reviewed) articles or book chapters that demonstrate a critical approach to your primary text or topic.
Not sure where to start? Here are three broad strategies that you can try:
Gothic Studies is the official, refereed journal of the International Gothic Association and features content that considers the field of Gothic studies from the eighteenth century to the present day. The journal currently appears twice each year and publishes a mixture of general issues and guest-edited specials on a wide range of Gothic authors, periods and traditions.
Like most other disciplines, English has several subject-specific databases. The MLA International Bibliography and Gale Literature Criticism are two examples. Subject databases index scholarly materials (books, chapters in books, scholarly articles, dissertations) that will be of interest to researchers within that discipline. MLAIB is the key database for literature, linguistics, and related areas.
Depending on your topic and your angle, you may wish to search additional subject databases.
These e-journal collections provide access to many journals in the humanities, but they are more limited in coverage compared to subject databases. In most cases, it's better to search subject databases to identify articles, and then search the journal title in Primo to link to the materials in these e-journal collections.
American Gothic Literature: a thematic study from Mary Rowlandson to Colson Whitehead by 
21st-Century Gothic by 
Gothic Passages: Racial Ambiguity and the American Gothic by 
Ecogothic by 
Gothic Realities: the impact of horror fiction on modern culture by 
The Queer Uncanny: new perspectives on the Gothic by 
Haunting Realities: naturalist Gothic and American realism by 
Technologies of the Gothic in Literature and Culture by Collins Library uses Library of Congress Subject Headings to describe the content of books.
You only need to be an observant user of Primo -- not an expert in the use of subject headings -- to make them work for you. Availing yourself of frequently used subject headings will help you locate secondary sources easily. Use subject headings to search for resources related to a specific author or work, in addition to literary themes or movements, genres, and/or critical approaches.
Here are several examples, centered on Gothic America, of the various ways you can use LCSH to help pinpoint what you need:
Jackson, Shirley, 1916-1965 -- Criticism and interpretation
Gothic fiction (literary genre), American -- History and criticism
Gothic revival (Literature) -- United States
Gothic revival (Literature) -- United States -- History
Texts that interpret literary works are usually persuasive texts. Literary critics may conduct a close reading of a work, critique a literary work from the stance of a particular literary theory, or debate the soundness of other critics' interpretations.
During the preview phase, you'll want to concentrate on these key elements:
Once you've selected the article, you can actively read for content, argument, analysis and evaluation.
Tip: Read the article more than once! It may help to print out a copy so that you can make notes.
If your article is not available at Collins Library, you've got another option for getting it. Use Tipasa, our interlibrary loan service.
Tipasa is linked to your library account so you'll need to log in to use it.
Once you are logged in, either go directly to Tipasa and manually enter the information, or, if you're using a database, look for a shortcut link to automatically fill out the form:
Allow at least a week for the article to come. If your article is delivered in electronic format, you'll receive an email with a link to follow as soon as it's arrived.
