Welcome to your Subject Guide where you'll find tailored guidance and advice on key library resources for English Literature programmes.
Reference, Handbooks & Companions
- American National Biography Online This link opens in a new window
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Profiles of nearly 20,000 Americans from all eras who have influenced and shaped the USA's history and culture. From missionaries to musicians, social workers to statisticians, cowboys to chemists, and Vikings to astronauts. Includes people from pre-colonial times to those who have died in the last 5 years.
- Cambridge Companions This link opens in a new window
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Contains the Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics, which offers thousands of comprehensive and accessible essays on major authors, periods and genres, written by experts and designed for student readers. - Cambridge Histories This link opens in a new window
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The Literature collection consists of over 90 volumes providing authoritative overviews of a wide range of topics spanning the whole range of literary activity from Anglo-saxon times to the present day. - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
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50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2000.
- Oxford English Dictionary Online This link opens in a new window
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A fully searchable online version of the Second print edition of the OED.
- Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
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The Literature section of OHO includes essays on most aspects of poetry, prose, verse, and drama in English. - Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Includes reference works in Literary studies; Literary theory and cultural studies; Shakespeare studies and criticism.
Specialist databases
Databases are large, searchable collections of academic materials. Some provide access to full-text journal articles, whilst others provide abstract or citation information about articles. The content of most databases is indexed in 'Search Everything' on UR Library Search, so you can find the articles there too; but for more advanced, precise search options you can go to the individual databases.
- ProQuest One Literature (formerly Literature Online) This link opens in a new window
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Access to full text journals, dissertations, eBooks, primary works, video and reference works from all over the world, including the ProQuest Black Writing Collection, and the World Literature Collection.
- ACLS Humanities EBook This link opens in a new window
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Subjects: humanities and related social sciences.
- Bloomsbury Collections This link opens in a new window
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A collection of arts and humanities eBooks, with a strong focus on Philosophy.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Hundreds of full text journals and eBooks in the arts, humanities, social sciences and life sciences.
- Letters of Charles Dickens: 1820-1870 (Past Masters) This link opens in a new window
This database contains the full-text letters of Charles Dickens and is fully searchable.
- Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window
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Compiles literary commentary from newspapers, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books, periodicals and more.
- Open Library of Humanities (Open Access Resource) This link opens in a new windowIncludes: C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings; Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship; Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry; Marvell Studies; Orbit: A Journal of American Literature.
- Project Gutenberg (Open Access Resource) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to over 60,000 free eBooks; also discoverable through UR Library Search.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to journal articles, eBooks and reviews in the humanities and social sciences. Spotlight on Project Muse blog post.
- TLS Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
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Full text of the Times Literary Supplement from 1902-2013.
Print Collections at Roehampton
Most books on English Literature and Creative Writing can be found on the third floor of the Library at the following locations ("shelfmarks"):
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Creative Writing |
808.02 |
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Writing Drama |
808.2 |
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Writing for TV |
808.225 |
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Scriptwriting |
808.23 |
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Novel writing |
808.3 |
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General literature |
800 |
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Theory & philosophy |
801 |
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Dictionaries/encyclopaedias etc |
803 |
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History & criticism |
809 |
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English Literature |
820 |
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English Poetry |
821 |
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English Drama |
822 |
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Shakespeare |
822.33 |
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English Novel |
823 |
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Works about authors |
828 |
Books on getting published can be found in the Publishing section at 070 on the first floor.
We also have a rich variety of Special Collections & Archives at University of Roehampton Library, including:
- Children's Literature Collection This collection exists to support children's literature studies at Roehampton and the work of the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature (NCRCL). It is a reference collection of about 3,000 critical, theoretical, bibliographical and reference works. The Collection also holds runs of approximately 40 specialist children's literature journals.
- Children's Literature Digital Collection The Children's Literature Collection is a specialist collection within the university library. It exists to support children's literature studies at Roehampton and the work of the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature (NCRCL).
- Richmal Crompton Collection Richmal Crompton (1890 - 1969) is best known for the Just William stories which were written between 1919 – 1969. Deposited with the Archives and Special Collections by the author’s heirs and executors in 2008, this is one of the most comprehensive archive collections of an author’s life and work.
The Library also holds a School Experience Collection on the first floor containing a large collection of picture books, young adult titles as well as teaching materials.
Digital Archives and other Research Resources
The Foyle Special Collections and Archives has a selection of digital content from its collections. This includes historical photographs, images of archival material as well as publication fragments (in addition to the Roehampton Digital Collections). The content can be made available to individuals upon request.
- ARTSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to curated high quality images from reliable sources that have been rights-cleared for use in education and research. It contains 300 collections composed of over 2 million images.
- BBC Shakespeare Archive Resource (Open Access Resource) This link opens in a new window
The BBC's archive of their entire output relating to Shakespeare: plays, poems and sonnets, documentaries, interviews, photographs and stills. Licensed only for streamed playback. To use this platform you will need to register using your Roehampton email address. Click here to register.
- BFI Player for Higher Education This link opens in a new window
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The British Film Institute's curated streaming service for higher education, with a focus on British and European independent films. Note: after logging in with your Roehampton email address, you need to create a personal user account for access. You may watch content on personal devices or in class, but BFI Player is not licenced for public screenings.
- British Library Sounds (Open Access Resource) This link opens in a new window
Access thousands of the British Library's global recordings, including music, drama and literature, oral history, languages and dialects, wildlife, and birdsong.
- Drama Online This link opens in a new window
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Plays and play criticisms from a range of publishers including Aurora Metro Books, Faber & Faber and Bloomsbury Publishing. Also includes Globe on Screen and Early Modern video Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum's archives. Note: To access this resource please select “University of Roehampton”.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window
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Streams thousands of films, documentaries and training videos across a wide range of subjects. Note: Click 'Log in to Roehampton' on the left side of the screen to gain access. Please note: BBC programmes may be available via Roehampton Online Broadcasts (ROB).
- National Theatre Collection This link opens in a new window
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High-definition streaming video of world-class productions, plus unique archival material, from London’s National Theatre.
- ROB (Roehampton Online Broadcasts) This link opens in a new window
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Record and stream freeview TV and radio programmes for educational use, create clips and playlists, and access the archive of recorded programmes including BBC and Shakespeare Archives. ROB is managed by AVR, for assistance contact: avr@roehampton.ac.uk.
- Theatre Performance and Design Collection This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive collection of performance videos, audio recordings, and production designs (from sound and lights to sets and costumes).
The Library has several databases that offer digital access to early printed books, pamphlets and newspapers. You can use these to see how the firrst edition looked, or read contemporary accounts or reviews of that book or play you are studying.
- Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
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The Times newspaper in facsimile from 1785 - 2019.
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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A cross-searchable platform of eight databases containing digital reproductions of newspapers, periodicals, books and ephemera from the 17th to 20th centuries, including archives of the Illustrated London News, the Listener, Times & Times Literary Supplement (TLS).
- British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
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The British Library’s archives of searchable facsimiles of regional and national newspapers from the 19th century.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Periodicals from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
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Full text searching of millions of pages of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more.
- Guardian and Observer (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
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Local, regional and national UK news archive from 1791 - 2003. Note: to access current issues, see Pressreader.
- Illustrated London News This link opens in a new window
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A digital archive of the world's first weekly illustrated newspaper from 1842 to 2003, providing contemporary accounts and images of significant British and world events.
- John Johnson Collection This link opens in a new window
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Archive of printed ephemera covering everyday life in Britain in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
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Primary sources covering British politics, society, and culture, including theatre, music and literature.
- Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Access to close to 100 periodicals for the study of British life in the 19th century - from women to sports and leisure, and from children to humour.
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
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An archive of hundreds of digitized journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Library Subject Resources Guides for
Children's Literature Library Subject Resources Guide - Roehampton has strong collections of materials to support the study of children's literature, both in print and online. These include primary sources, historical and contemporary children's book collections, critical works and commentary, biography and autobiography of children's authors and illustrators and children's literature journals.