Course resource help for English Literature and Creative Writing

Here is a selection of recommended databases for English Literature and Creative Writing. Key databases are JSTOR and MLA International Bibliography, but you may want to explore others, depending on your topic.

Need help with using databases?

• Use the worksheet Finding journal articles for English Literature and Creative Writing (you'll be prompted to make your own copy) which gives tips on choosing keywords and using them to search databases. It has space for you add your own notes.
• Many of the databases listed below have links to their own guides.
• If you're not sure which database would be best for your topic, or you need help with database searching, you are welcome to contact the Library for individual help and advice. You can make a 1-to-1 appointment for help (in person or online).

JSTOR

An archive of full-text articles from a range of academic journals with good coverage of literary journals.  It also includes open access eBooks and has a huge collection of high-quality images.

• How to use JSTOR - guides produced by JSTOR
• Problems accessing JSTOR? Check the JSTOR troubleshooting guide

Highly recommended for anyone studying Shakespeare is JSTOR's Understanding Shakespeare tool that lets you look up quotations from a Shakespeare play and find JSTOR articles that reference them. 
 

MLA International Bibliography with Full Text

MLA International Bibliography with Full Text is a key database for in-depth research in literary studies that can help you find full-text journal articles, books and book chapters.

Note that when you're using MLA, you can expand your search to include another EBSCO database called Academic Search Complete. This is a large database covering all subject areas, so may be useful if you're doing more cross-disciplinary research.To do this:

• Click on the 'Choose Databases' link above the search boxes.
• Tick the box next to Academic Search Complete to add it to your search.
• Click OK and you'll be returned to the search boxes.

Academic Search Complete

A large multidisciplinary database, containing lots of full text articles. Good coverage of English Studies journals.

Note that when you're using Academic Search Complete, you can expand your search to include the more specialised literature databases MLA International Bibliography which is on the same EBSCO platform. To do this:

• Click on the 'Choose Databases' link above the search boxes.
• Tick the box next to MLA to add it to your search.
• Click OK and you'll be returned to the search boxes.

Performing Arts Periodicals Database

This is a mainly full-text database covering theatre, film, TV and computer games. It's recommended for Drama modules and topics and is a good place to find reviews of plays in performance.

BoB - Box of Broadcasts

An online archive giving you access to thousands of recorded radio and TV programmes including films. It allows users to record programmes which will then be stored on the database. Log in when prompted with your Brookes username and password.

Digital Theatre+

This is a collection of drama & theatre resources including essays, recordings of live performances & interviews with theatre practitioners. It's a key resource for Drama students. NB If using Chrome, make sure you have the latest version.

OED - Oxford English Dictionary

Online version of the authoritative English language dictionary. 

As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, sometimes from as far back as the 11th century, and of the language—traced through 3.5 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts, song lyrics, and social media posts.

Oxford Reference

This is an online collection of Oxford University Press reference books on a variety of subjects including literature, history and mythology. These are good sources for finding concise factual information and definitions. Individual titles from the collection are also listed on LibrarySearch.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

An illustrated collection of full text articles providing the life stories of over 55,000 people, ancient and modern, who have shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.

Oxford Text Archive

Oxford Text Archive is hosted at Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. It's a large repository of literary and linguistic data, including sources from historic collections. 

NB The Oxford Text Archive website is currently undergoing maintenance following a major IT incident 

A legacy website still exists but may be decommissioned soon.

Academic journals are key sources for your literary studies and your tutors will encourage them to use them as sources in your assignments. 

• Articles published in these journals are written by specialists in the subject and they provide an insight into current thinking, debate and research in the field. 
• Journals can be good sources of up to date information on current topics or recent works which may not be covered by books. 
• Articles can cover a specific topic in depth, e.g. a study of a specific play or even a specific scene.
• Scholarly journal articles will include a list of sources the authors have used in their research - these may also be useful for you.

This guide from the Open University (PDF) explains clearly what a journal is, and how they differ from books. An important thing to note is that new issues are regularly published, and that all the issues from one year are known as a volume.  

One reason journal articles are so highly valued is peer review. Peer-reviewed articles have been checked by other experts in the field. This is an important form of quality control for published research. Find out more about peer review and how it works.  

How to find academic journal articles 

You can use:

• Your module reading list, to see what journal articles your module leader recommends
• LibrarySearch
• Databases

Journal Collections

The journal collections below can work like databases, but only cover titles from specific publishers. Note we don't subscribe to every title in these collections:

• Taylor & Francis Journals
• Cambridge Journals
• Wiley
• Sage Journals

Use LibKeyNomad

If you come across an article online, you may not be able to read the full article. However, the library might already provide access to this journal. To avoid having to double-check in LibrarySearch each time, you can install a free browser extension called LibKey Nomad. This will then give you fast one-click access to content provided by the library - wherever you start from.

• Download the LibKey Nomad extension
• Find out more about LibKey Nomad

Use Browzine 

You can use BrowZine to flick through multiple journals from a variety of publishers and get notified when new issues are published. You can make your own bookshelf or explore their bookshelves for: Literature, Creative Writing and Theatre and Performance Studies.

Use Browzine within your browser or download the free app. 

• Start browsing BrowZine or 
• Learn more about BrowZine

Find out more about LibKey Nomad and Browzine from our Journals page

Dictionaries and reference books

• OED online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
• Oxford Reference Online This is a collection of Oxford University Press reference books on a variety of subjects including Literature. Individual titles from the collection are also listed on LibrarySearch.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - an illustrated collection of essays providing the life stories of over 50,000 people who have shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond. Includes novelists, poets and playwrights.

Check the Reference in MHRA guide for how to reference entries from online dictionaries and reference works

Oxford Text Archive

Oxford Text Archive is a digital repository of literary and linguistic data, including sources from historic collections. 

NB The Oxford Text Archive website is currently undergoing maintenance following a major IT incident 

A legacy website still exists but may be decommissioned soon.

These are all free sources. For details of Brookes subscription collections, check the section 'Historical sources'

• The JSTOR Understanding series - this project currently gives free access to ALL Shakespeare plays and sonnets, plus other key works of British literature and the King James Bible.

• Project Gutenberg is a good place to look for out-of-copyright literary works. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use.

• Digital.Bodleian provides access to a wealth of digitized sources from the Bodleian Libraries' collection

Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is a service which gives you access to thousands of recorded TV, radio programmes and films from an online archive. Note that you will need to sign in with your Oxford Brookes login details each time you use BoB and the first time you access it, you will be prompted to create an account. This allows you to create your own playlists and clips, and ask for programmes to be added to the collection. 

Getting started with BoB (guides)
Note that Box of Broadcasts can only be used by students based in the UK.

Check Reference with MHRA: How to reference other sources for guidance on how to reference BoB programmes correctly.

On BoB you can create your own playlists or browse existing ones. Take a look at the links below for a selection of playlists created by your Librarian:

Shakespeare

• Shakespeare (Oxford Brookes playlist) - Shakespeare productions and documentaries

Poetry

• Poetry (Oxford Brookes playlist) - selection of poetry resources
• Discover contemporary poetry (Oxford Brookes playlist)- featuring Mary Jean Chan, Claudia Rankine, Hannah Lowe, Helen Mort, Kei Miller, Layli Long Soldier, Ocean Vuong, Terrance Hayes and many more.

Novels

• Austen on Screen (Oxford Brookes playlist)
• The Brontes on screen (Oxford Brookes playlist) - adaptations of novels by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, plus documentaries
• Dickens on screen (Oxford Brookes playlist) 
• Eliot on screen (Oxford Brookes playlist) - adaptations of George Eliot's novels, plus documentaries 
• Gothic literature (Oxford Brookes playlist) 
• Hardy on screen (Oxford Brookes playlist)
• Victorian novels on screen (Oxford Brookes playlist) - adaptations of a selection of 19th C novels by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Anthony Trollope
• His Dark Materials (Oxford Brookes playlist) - BBC TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's trilogy
• Wolf Hall (Oxford Brookes playlist) - TV series adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novels & related documentaries

Drama

• Drama and theatre (Oxford Brookes playlist) - Selection of documentaries and interviews
• Plays in performance (Oxford Brookes playlist) - Selection of plays in performance on TV and radio, including productions by the National Theatre, The Globe & many more
• Oscar Wilde on stage and screen  

Two good sources of visual images and photographs are:

• JSTOR - This database contains over a million images from collections world-wide. Covers the arts, architecture, humanities and sciences. Includes over 92,000 Magnum photographs and many other photographic collections.
• Bridgeman Education - This is a digital image library covering visual culture of all civilisations and historical periods from pre- historic to the present day.

Check the guide Using images in your English & Drama assignments (Google slides) which covers: understanding copyright; finding free to use images; crediting and referencing images.

Find out how to reference images in MHRA

• Factiva is an international news database. It covers national newspapers, local newspapers and web sources as well as a selection of magazines. It's a good place to find book and theatre reviews.
  A guide to using Factiva to find newspaper articles (video)

• Lexis+ is a law database which includes articles from UK national and regional news sources. For further help with searching Lexis+ check How to use Lexis+ - see the section 'How to search newspapers'

For more help with tracking down news sources and how to identify fake news, see our News sources webpage.

​Check Referencing in MHRA for guidance on how to reference newspaper articles correctly.

You may want to find historical sources that are contemporary with an author you're studying. The Library has several online collections that may be useful:

Historical books

Early English books online (EEBO) Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Full text.

Historical journals and magazines (late 17th C - early 20th C)

• British Periodicals is an archive of hundreds of full text periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, covering history, literature, music, philosophy, drama, archaeology, architecture, science, art and the social sciences.
• Nineteenth century UK periodicals, series 1 provides access to digital editions of nearly 100 periodicals, including many full runs, published between 1800 and 1900. Series 1 relates to new readerships and covers titles aimed at women and children as well as topics such as sport and leisure, humour and satire. The associated Topic Guide includes a chronology and useful essays on the relevant readership groups and subject themes.

Newspapers (late 18th C - 20th C)

• The Guardian and The Observer 1791 - 2003 (via ProQuest). The complete digital edition of the Guardian (1821 - 2003) and the Observer (1791 - 2003) with all articles, advertisements and illustrations. Use the 'Publications' option to browse the different versions of these newspapers published over the years.

• Times Digital Archive 1785-2007 (via Gale Databases). The complete digital edition of The Times (London), with all articles, advertisements and illustrations.

• Seventeenth & Eighteenth century Burney newspapers collection (via Gale Databases) a digital archive of 17th and 18th newspapers, pamphlets, proclamations and newsbooks published in England, Ireland and Scotland, plus a selection of papers from British colonies in the Americas and Asia. Use the 'Browse' option to view which titles are included.

• British Library newspapers (1800-1900) (via Gale Databases) - this collection covers contains digital editions of over 60 national and regional British newspapers from the 19th century. Use the 'Browse' option to view which titles are included. Note we have access to the collections 'British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800-1900' and 'British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800-1900'. 

• NewsVault (via Gale Databases) allows you to cross-search all of the Gale historical collections we subscribe to. This covers: Seventeenth & Eighteenth century Burney newspapers collection; British Library newspapers (1800-1900); Times Digital Archive 1785-2007; 19th Century UK Periodicals.

See the 'Newspaper databases' section if you want more contemporary newspapers.

​Check Referencing in MHRA for guidance on how to reference newspaper articles correctly.

Other primary historical sources 

History primary sources is a selection of primary sources, both online resources and print books which are anthologies of primary sources.