Research Guides: A Guide to Comparative Literature Resources: Encyclopedias & Handbooks

Online Reference Databases for Literature

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature
The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature contains over 400 articles and aims to map, over time, the world’s entire landscape of literary expressions and criticism, weaving together the various fields and approaches that make up literature.
Cambridge Companions Online
Full-text access to books in the Cambridge Companions in Literature and Classics and Cambridge Companions in Philosophy, Religion, and Culture series. Essays which are intended to serve as reference works for an inter-disciplinary audience. NOTE: Washington University Libraries do not subscribe to Shakespeare Survey. Please ignore those references in your results; you will not be able to get to the full-text.
ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language)
American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language contains over 2000 texts from the 12th through the 19th centuries.
ProQuest One Literature
Contains 3 million literature citations from thousands of journals, monographs, dissertations, and more than 500,000 primary works – including rare and obscure texts, multiple versions, and non-traditional sources like comics, theatre performances, and author readings. Learn more about this database.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
Includes almost 300 alphabetically arranged entries and subentries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. Updated annually.
Kindlers Literatur Lexikon (Kindlers Literature Encyclopedia)
Comprehensive German-language encyclopedia of world literature from the Antiquity to the present. Has summaries and synopses of +13,000 works. Includes biographical sketches.
Dictionary of Literary Biography
More than 16,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres. Includes the DLB main series, the DLB Documentary Series, and the DLB Yearbook Series. Learn more about this database.
Gale Literature Criticism
Includes centuries of analysis - the scholarly and popular commentary from broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals. Comprised of 10 individual Thomson Gale series that represent a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres.
Literary Encyclopedia
Over 5100 authoritative profiles of authors, works and literary and historical topics, written by over 2000 specialists from universities around the world. Also lists over 22,000 works by date, country and genre. Covers canonical literature originally written in English, French, German and Russian, and is extending its coverage of Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek. Data can be arrayed by date, country and genre.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
An accessible and intuitive online platform, Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism brings together a wealth of interdisciplinary content about the Modernist period, and is the ideal starting point for any research in modernism. With over 1,000 articles from experts in the field, supported by over 100 images, The content covers eight key subject areas: Literature, Architecture, Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Theater, Film, and Intellectual Currents. Researchers can browse by subject, movement, or place in order to discover connections between key topics and fields.
Oxford Reference Online (6 users)
Contains almost 200 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. Includes over 50,000 additional in-depth, scholarly articles from titles in the acclaimed Oxford Companions Series, plus all 20,000 quotations from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. You can brose literature reference titles by selecting "Subject" in the nagivation menu and selecting "Literature"

Other Online Encyclopedias & Handbooks

A Companion to World Literature by Ken Seigneurie (Editor-In-Chief); Wiebke Denecke (Associate Editor); Christine Chism (Associate Editor); Ilaria L. E. Ramelli (Associate Editor); Christopher Lupke (Associate Editor); Evan Nicoll-Johnson (Associate Editor); Frieda Ekotto (Associate Editor); Abigail E. Celis (Associate Editor); B. Venkat Mani (Associate Editor)
ISBN: 9781118635193
Publication Date: 2020
A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory by Michael Payne (Editor); Jessica Rae Barbera (Editor)
ISBN: 9781405168908
Publication Date: 2010
Now thoroughly updated and revised, this new edition of the highly acclaimed dictionary provides an authoritative and accessible guide to modern ideas in the broad interdisciplinary fields of cultural and critical theory Updated to feature over 40 new entries including pieces on Alain Badiou, Ecocriticism, Comparative Racialization , Ordinary Language Philosophy and Criticism, and Graphic Narrative Includes reflective, broad-ranging articles from leading theorists including Julia Kristeva, Stanley Cavell, and Simon Critchley Features a fully updated bibliography Wide-ranging content makes this an invaluable dictionary for students of a diverse range of disciplines
A Dictionary of Literary Symbols by Michael Ferber
ISBN: 9780511065873
Publication Date: 2007
"This is the first dictionary of symbols to be based on literature, rather than "universal" psychological archetypes or myths. It explains and illustrates the literary symbols that we all frequently encounter (such as swan, rose, moon, gold), and gives hundreds of cross-referenced and quotations. The dictionary concentrates on English literature, but its entries range widely from the Bible and classical authors to the twentieth century, taking in American and European literatures. For this new edition, Michael Ferber has included over twenty new entries (including bear, holly, sunflower, and tower) and has added to many of the existing entries."--BOOK JACKET.
A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory by Martin Dines (Associate Editor); Shanyn Fiske (Associate Editor); Vedrana Velickovic (Associate Editor); J. A. Cuddon; M. A. R. Habib (Revised by); Matthew Birchwood (Associate Editor)
ISBN: 9781444333275
Publication Date: 2013
With new entries and sensitive edits, this fifth edition places J.A. Cuddon's indispensable dictionary firmly in the 21st Century. Written in a clear and highly readable style Comprehensive historical coverage extending from ancient times to the present day Broad intellectual and cultural range Expands on the previous edition to incorporate the most recent literary terminology New material is particularly focused in areas such as gender studies and queer theory, post-colonial theory, post-structuralism, post-modernism, narrative theory, and cultural studies. Existing entries have been edited to ensure that topics receive balanced treatment
Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies by Sangeeta Ray (Editor); April Shemak (Associate Editor); Jose Luis Villacanas Berlanga (Associate Editor); Henry Schwarz (Editor); Alberto Moreiras (Associate Editor)
ISBN: 9781444334982
Publication Date: 2016
The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies brings together the most wide-ranging and up-to-date scholarship ever assembled on the colonial, postcolonial and neo-colonial condition, covering the period from 1492 to the present. The first and only reference of its kind that treats colonial processes as global and millennial Close to 400 entries offer unprecedented coverage, exploring the dynamics of European conquest from Columbus to China, and critiques of colonialism from Las Casas to Gayatri Spivak Written by an international cast of leading scholars An essential reference for scholars in a broad range of fields, including world literature, anthropology, political science, sociology, gender, feminist and queer studies, history and history of science 4 Volumes www.literatureencyclopedia.com
Encyclopedia of Semiotics by Paul Bouissac (Editor)
ISBN: 9780195120905
Publication Date: 1998-09-10
Three hundred entries by leading scholars in a variety of fields--from anthropology and literary theory to linguistics and philosophy--survey the study of signs and symbols in human culture in this new work. The articles cover key concepts, theories, theorists, schools, and issues in communications, cognition, and cultural theory. From introductions to Barthes and Bakhtin to analyses of gossip and myth, this is a valuable reference for students and scholars.
Handbook of Narratology by Peter Hühn (Editor); Jan Christoph Meister (Editor); John Pier (Editor); Wolf Schmid (Editor); Peter Hühn (Editor)
ISBN: 9783110316346
Publication Date: 2014-08-27
This handbook provides a systematic overview of the present state of international research in narratology and is now available in a second, completely revised and expanded edition. Detailed individual studies by internationally renowned narratologists elucidate central terms of narratology, present a critical account of the major research positions and their historical development and indicate directions for future research.
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms by Chris Baldick
ISBN: 9780199208272
Publication Date: 2009
The best-selling Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (formerly the Concise dictionary) provides clear and concise, and often witty definitions of the most troublesome literary terms from abjection to zeugma. It is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language. It is now available in a new and expanded edition and includes increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, and schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction. It also includes extensive coverage of traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history, as well as updated and extended advice on recommended further reading and entry-level web links. There is also a pronunciation guide to more than 200 terms.
The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation by Peter France (Editor)
ISBN: 9780198183594
Publication Date: 2000
This book, written by a team of experts from many countries, provides a comprehensive account of the ways in which translation has brought the major literatures of the world into English-speaking culture. Part I discusses theoretical issues and gives an overview of the history of translation into English. Part II, the bulk of the work, arranged by language of origin, offers critical discussions, with bibliographies, of the translation history of specific texts (e.g. the Koran, the Kalevala), authors (e.g. Lucretius, Dostoevsky), genres (e.g. Chinese poetry, twentieth-century Italian prose) and national literatures (e.g. Hungarian, Afrikaans).
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics by Roland Greene (Editor-In-Chief); Stephen Cushman (Editor); Clare Cavanagh (Editor); Jahan Ramazani (Editor); Paul Rouzer (Editor)
ISBN: 9780691154916
Publication Date: 2012
The most important poetry reference for more than four decades--now fully updated for the twenty-first century Through three editions over more than four decades, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics has built an unrivaled reputation as the most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of its subject: history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, critical terms, and more.
The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translation by Kelly Washbourne (Editor); Ben Van Wyke (Editor)
ISBN: 9781315517131
Publication Date: 2018
The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translation provides an accessible, diverse and extensive overview of literary translation today. This next-generation volume brings together principles, case studies, precepts, histories and process knowledge from practitioners in sixteen different countries. Divided into four parts, the book covers many of literary translation's most pressing concerns today, from teaching, to theorising, to translation techniques, to new tools and resources. Featuring genre studies, in which graphic novels, crime fiction, and ethnopoetry have pride of place alongside classics and sacred texts, The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translation represents a vital resource for students and researchers of both translation studies and comparative literature.
Translation : an international encyclopedia of translation studies by Theo Hermans (Editor); Werner Koller (Editor); José Lambert (Editor); Fritz Paul (Editor); Harald Kittel (Editor); Armin Paul Frank (Editor); Norbert Greiner (Editor)
ISBN: 9783110137088
Publication Date: 2004-11-29
This international encyclopedia documents and surveys, for the first time, the entire complex of translation as well as the operations and phenomena associated with it. Structured along systematic, historical and geographic lines, it offers a comprehensive and critical account of the current state of knowledge and of international research.