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A Guide to Comparative Literature

Research Guide to support Comparative Literature at Washington University.

Tips for finding literary works in translation at WU Libraries

  • To find translations of a specific work into English, search Quick Search for the author and the title in the author's language. Then you can filter the results by choosing "English" under "Language." 
  • If you are overwhelmed by irrelevant results, try a more precise search using the Advanced Search and use the "title" and "author" fields from the dropdown menu. 
  • Sometimes a title will not appear in the metadata because the translation appears in a collected volume (e.g. "Collected Works" or "Selected Stories") so it is worth searching just by author and language. 
  • To find anthologies or bibliographies of translated works, try searching by subject for a given national or transnational literature followed by the phrase "Translations into English" like in the following examples: Latin American Literature -- Translations into English, Chinese Literature -- Translations into English.
  • Finding translations can be tricky, so don't hesitate to meet with a subject librarian or ask us on chat if you aren't able to find a particular translation.

Databases and websites for finding translations

Print bibliographies, reference works, handbooks