Literary criticism is a particular kind of scholarly article, and is useful for analyzing and reflecting on poetry, short fiction, drama and other literature you may read.
Through this interactive tutorial you'll practice:
Use the arrow below to get started!
Figuring out a topic that you're interested in and that will work for a particular academic assignment is often the most challenging thing to do.
Here are some places to start looking for a topic:
For this tutorial we're going to search for literary criticism and other scholarship on Octavia E. Butler and her work.
We're going to be exploring Artemis Literary Sources for this tutorial. This is a great resource because you're searching several databases as once!
You can get to Artemis Literary Sources through the Boston Public Library, using your BPL card/eCard (if you don't already have one, click here to create your account).
OR
You can get to Artemis Literary Sources directly through MCPHS Libraries, courtesy of the MLBLC.
You can't choose wrong, but you have to choose one (to continue)!
To start, let's search using the author's name:
Octavia Butler
Explore the content types listed next to the search results, by clicking on Literature Criticism and then on Reviews & News and seeing how the results change.
Take a look at the content types listed next to the search results. Which type of content is most likely to to give us more information about this author?
Biographies do more than tell you about the author - they're also a great place to learn more about what an author has written, which can then help you narrow down the literature criticism-type search results.
Limit your results by content type by clicking on Biographies and then opening one of the biographies on Butler.
Using either a biography from Artemis or Credo, which one of these is not listed as one of Octavia Butler's works?
In Artemis, click on search results and then on back to all search results to see everything again. (Or, if you were in Credo, go back to Artemis and re-search for Octavia Butler.)
Now, you're still looking at quite a few results. Instead of scrolling through all of the, you can search within the results using the title of particular work.
Let's search for Wild Seed.
How many literature criticism results are there for Wild Seed?
Start by browsing down the result list to see what catches your attention - click on and read those.
Research is more fun when you're interested it!
Once you find a few articles you'd like to read, remember to download the full thing (so you can read it later), and use the citation tools to copy & paste the citation you can easily built your Reference List later.
If you've still got questions about finding articles, citations, using the Library's resources, or anything else - just ask a librarian!
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Or, explore our Frequently Answered Questions.
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