Research Guides: Short Story Criticism: Reference Sources and Background Materials

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Handbooks

When starting your research, consulting reference sources like Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Handbooks can help create a strong foundation for your paper. These sources can help you better understand the background, history, and context of your topic and make scholarly articles (which are very detailed) easier to read.

Many reference books are now available online and are full text searchable, making this step in the research process fast and easy.

For specific short story resources, you might want to try:

Short Stories for Students
Call Number: Online & Print
Literary Movements for Students
Call Number: Online

Gale Artemis: Literary Sources This link opens in a new window
Available online
Search journals, reference works, and primary sources for critical articles, literary and cultural analysis and biographies. Also has a "Topic Finder" that may help you get ideas for topics or narrow an existing topic.

Literature and its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them
Call Number: Online & Print
Provides in-depth commentary on characters, themes, and the historical and social context of 300 most-studied literary works.
Short Story Criticism
Call Number: PN 3373 S54 (1st floor Reference Shelves)
Multi-volume set contains excerpts from criticism on short stories from all time periods. Consult title index in latest volume or the online Gale Literary Index to find out which stories are covered in the set.

Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Available online
This database is the host for many of the above resources, but can also be searched as its own multidisciplinary reference source. You can search through dozens of subject specific and academic encyclopedias at once. Can help you find information about historical periods, symbols, religious themes, and many other topics.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries available here at Langara
To find more background information on historical periods, literary context, biographies, the meaning of symbols, or any other topic, see suggestions in the full list of library reference sources.

Additional Recommendations:

All available in print in the Reference Area (Library 1st floor).

Critical Survey of Short Fiction
Call Number: PN 3321 C75 2012 (1st floor Reference)
Six volumes of essays on short story authors. Particularly useful for overview and analysis of an authors body of work. Index in volume 7.
Masterplots II, Short Story Series
Call Number: PN 3326 M27 2004 (Reference)
Eight-volume set containing brief signed essays on individual short stories from world literature. Index in volume 8.
Reference Guide to Short Fiction
Call Number: PN 3373 R36 1999 (Reference)
One volume; contains critical essays on writers, and on single works of short fiction.