Description and Rationale

§1. This is a selective listing of what I consider to be high-quality web resources for literary studies students. Its main purpose is to facilitate more efficient and more effective use of web resources for literary studies purposes (teaching, research, and browsing). I’ve tried to avoid “introductory” sites (sites that simply give summary information of the kind that can be found easily and often more reliably in an encyclopedia entry on a given topic) and instead have tried to focus on websites that provide “value-added” content of some kind. I’ve been especially interested in gathering together reference materials, bibliographic databases, journals, and full-texts available on the internet. (I have also included a section on other web guides.) (Read more . . .)

Table of Contents

Generic Classification of Kinds of Websites Included

Given the inevitable arbitrariness or ambiguity of some classification decisions in any such guide, the single, alphabetical Index may be the easiest way to identify the websites included in this guide. Online journals, however, are listed in their own category only. For fuller information about the websites listed, one should consult not the Index but the main listing of the website—which one can locate either through the classification (immediately below) of websites by the kind of material they provide or through the classification (further below) of websites by topic, that is, by the cultural regions they focus on.

Materials Restricted to GMU Users (Go)

Content-Rich Websites (Go)

Web Guides to Internet Resources (Go)

Bibliographic Websites (Go)

Journals (Go)

Index (Go)

Topical Classification of Contents by Cultural Region

I have arranged the entries in terms of the following classification into 14 regional categories. (Some websites of each kind—content-rich, web guides, bibliographies, journals—do not, however, fit under any regional categories below, and so are best found by using the generic table of contents above rather than the region-specific guides below). Sub-sections enclosed in square brackets [like this] do not currently have any content in them.

The regional classification begins with sections devoted to English-language dominated literatures and cultures (including the Caribbean in this grouping). I have placed works about a particular region under that regional category: thus, a work on African history by an English writer will be found in the section on Sub-Saharan Africa (rather than in that on British & Irish literature and culture) and, likewise, a travel narrative about the Middle East by an English author will be found in the section on North Africa & the Middle East. (Where the author of such works about “elsewhere” is a particularly well-known figure within his or her own cultural world, I have included an entry for these authors/works under the author’s own cultural region as well.) Given the non-intuitive character of some of these classification decisions, it is advisable to use (look up or search) the Index listing as an alternative method for locating relevant resources included in this guide, especially if one is looking for a particular item rather than “browsing” the resources available for a given region:

Australian & New Zealand Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ [web guides] ■ [bibliographies] ■ [journals]

British & Irish Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ web guides ■ bibliographies ■ journals

Canadian Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ [web guides] ■ [bibliographies] ■ journals

Caribbean Literature and Culture

[content-rich sites] ■ [web guides] ■ bibliographies ■ [journals]

U.S. Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ web guides ■ [bibliographies] ■ [journals]

Other English-Language Literatures & General Anglophone Literary Culture

[content-rich sites] ■ [web guides] ■ [bibliographies] ■ [journals]

European Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ web guides ■ bibliographies ■ [journals]

World Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ web guides ■ bibliographies ■ [journals]

East Asian & Southeast Asian Literature and Culture

[content-rich sites] ■ [web guides] ■ [bibliographies] ■ journals

South Asian Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ web guides ■ bibliographies ■ journals

North African & Middle Eastern Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ web guides ■ [bibliographies] ■ journals

Sub-Saharan African Literature and Culture

content-rich sites ■ web guides ■ bibliographies ■ journals

Latin American Literature and Culture

[content-rich sites] ■ [web guides] ■ [bibliographies] ■ [journals]

Other Particular Literatures and Cultures of the World

[content-rich sites] ■ [web guides] ■ [bibliographies] ■ [journals]