Reviews of Mecca
Literary Criticism Databases
- Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new windowThis database includes reference essays, topics in fine art and dance, scholarly criticism examining great authors and their works. The database has full-length videos of classic plays and films, hundreds of full-texts, classic works, full-text poems, and stories, and more. The Shakespeare Center holds plays and poems, including a comprehensive overview of every play, performance videos, an extensive library of criticism from the sixteenth century to the present, research and writing advice. Additionally, there is material covering Shakespeare's life and times, his contemporaries, his stage, his language, and many other related topics.
- Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
A collection of encyclopedias and specialized reference volumes, in ebook format, for multidisciplinary research. The diverse subject areas from which the volumes have been chosen include: Arts, Literature, Biography, Sciences, and Social Sciences. These reference materials, originally published in print format, are now accessible electronically and can be searched by keyword, article title, or subject. Articles may be printed or e-mailed.
- Gale Literature This link opens in a new window
Unlock information in primary sources, critical articles, literary and cultural analysis, and biographies. Search across centuries to see the broader continuum of the story you choose to tell. We have integrated Literature Resources from Gale and Literature Criticism Online into a single research environment to help you take your research to new levels.
- Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. The entries cover more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. Articles may be printed from the computer screen or e-mailed.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
This archive provides access to back issues of more than 500 scholarly journals spanning many disciplines. This is not a current issues database; typically there is a gap from 1 to 5 years between the most recently published journal issue and the back issues available in JSTOR. Articles can be searched by key word. Retrieved articles appear as high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed and printed.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowThis database provides access to an interdisciplinary collection of material, including scholarly journals and open source books, in the area of humanities and social sciences. Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Salem Press eBooks This link opens in a new windowThis database provides ebooks in numerous areas of study and research including science, history and historical primary sources, literature and literary criticism, psychology and behavioral sciences, and careers. The collection can be searched, including by keyword or subject. Print versions of these books are available in the library.
Books and eBooks
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino Literature by Call Number: Reference Collection PS153.H56 O94 2020ISBN: 9780190667597Publication Date: 2020-02-01
The Border and the Line by
Los Angeles is a city of borders and lines, from the freeways that transect its neighborhoods to streets like Pico Boulevard that slash across the city from the ocean to the heart of downtown, creating both ethnic enclaves and pathways for interracial connection. Examining neighborhoods in east, south central, and west L.A.--and their imaginative representation by Chicana, African American, and Jewish American writers--this book investigates the moral and political implications of negotiating space. The Border and the Line takes up the central conceit of "the neighbor" to consider how the geography of racial identification and interracial encounters are represented and even made possible by literary language. Dean J. Franco probes how race is formed and transformed in literature and in everyday life, in the works of Helena María Viramontes, Paul Beatty, James Baldwin, and the writers of the Watts Writers Workshop. Exploring metaphor and metonymy, as well as economic and political circumstance, Franco identifies the potential for reconciliation in the figure of the neighbor, an identity that is grounded by geographical boundaries and which invites their crossing.
Call Number: Main Collection PS285.L7 F73 2019ISBN: 9781503607293Publication Date: 2019-01-15
Southwestern Literature by
Outstanding, in-depth scholarship by renowned literary critics; great starting point for students seeking an introduction to the theme and the critical discussions surrounding it. Novels of the American Southwest most often deal with battles between man and the desert landscape, quests of Manifest Destiny, tales of the Old West, and cross-cultural conflicts between white American settlers and Native American tribes, including the Navajo and Apache. This volume explores these and many other themes, found in the works of such authors as Willa Cather, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, and more. Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of ""Works Cited,"" along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources: About This Volume; Critical Context: Original Introductory Essays; Critical Readings: Original In-Depth Essays; Further Readings; Detailed Bibliography; Detailed Bio of the Editor; General Subject Index.
Call Number: Main Collection PS277 .S68 2016 Also available as ebook (log-in with MyVCCCD Portal)ISBN: 9781619258426Publication Date: 2016-03-30
Native American Literature: a Very Short Introduction by
North American indigenous literature began over thirty thousand years ago when indigenous people began telling stories of emergence and creation, journey and quest, and heroism and trickery. By setting indigenous literature in historical moments, Sean Teuton skillfully traces its evolution from the ancient role of bringing rain and healing the body, to its later purpose in resisting European invasion and colonization, into its current place as a world literature that confronts dominance while celebrating the imagination and resilience of indigenous lives. By the time Europeans arrived in North America indigenous people already understood the power of written language and the need to transmit philosophy, history, and literature across generations and peoples. Seeking out multiple literary forms such as sermon, poetry, and novel to serve differing worldviews, indigenous authors have shaped their writing into North American indigenous literature as we recognize it today. In this lucid narrative, Sean Teuton leads readers into indigenous worlds. He describes the invention of a written indigenous language, the first indigenous language newspaper, and the literary occupation of Alcatraz Island. Along the way readers encounter the diversity of indigenous peoples who, owing to their differing lands, livelihoods, and customs, molded literature to a nation's specific needs. As Teuton shows, indigenous literature is one of the best places for understanding indigenous views about land and society and the role of humanity in the cosmos. In turning to celebrated contemporary authors such as Thomas King, Leslie Silko, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, and James Welch, Teuton demonstrates that, like indigenous people, indigenous literature continues to survive because it adapts, both honoring the past and reaching for the future.
Call Number: Main Collection PS153.I52 T465 2018ISBN: 9780199944521Publication Date: 2018-01-19
The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature by
Invisible, marginal, expected - these words trace the path of recognition for American Indian literature written in English since the late eighteenth century. This Companion chronicles and celebrates that trajectory by defining relevant institutional, historical, cultural, and gender contexts, by outlining the variety of genres written since the 1770s, and also by focusing on significant authors who established a place for Native literature in literary canons in the 1970s (Momaday, Silko, Welch, Ortiz, Vizenor), achieved international recognition in the 1980s (Erdrich), and performance-celebrity status in the 1990s (Harjo and Alexie). In addition to the seventeen chapters written by respected experts - Native and non-Native; American, British and European scholars - the Companion includes bio-bibliographies of forty authors, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a timeline which details major works of Native American literature and mainstream American literature, as well as significant social, cultural and historical events. An essential overview of this powerful literature.
Call Number: Main Collection PS153.I52 C36 2005ISBN: 9780521822831Publication Date: 2005-07-21
The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature by
A dazzling and definitive compendium of the Latino literary tradition. This groundbreaking Norton Anthology includes the work of 201 Latino writers from Chicano, Cuban-, Puerto Rican-, and Dominican-American traditions, as well as writing from other Spanish-speaking countries. Under the general editorship of award-winning cultural critic Ilan Stavans, The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature traces four centuries of writing, from letters to the Spanish crown by sixteenth-century conquistadors to the cutting-edge expressions of twenty-first-century cartoonistas and artists of reggaeton. In six chronological sections--Colonization, Annexation, Acculturation, Upheaval, Into the Mainstream, and Popular Traditions--it encompasses all genres, featuring such writers as José Martí, William Carlos Williams, Julia Alvarez, Oscar Hijuelos, Cristina García, Piri Thomas, Esmeralda Santiago, and Junot Díaz. Twelve years in the making, The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature sheds new light on "nuestra America" through a gathering of writing unprecedented in scope and vitality.
Call Number: Main Collection PS 508.H57 N65 2011ISBN: 9780393080070Publication Date: 2010-09-13
Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks by
Contributions by Carolina Alonso, Elena Avil's, Trevor Boffone, Christi Cook, Ella Diaz, Amanda Ellis, Cristina Herrera, Guadalupe García McCall, Domino Renee Pérez, Adrianna M. Santos, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, Lettycia Terrones, and Tim Wadham In Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature, the outsider intersects with discussions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. The essays in this volume address questions of outsider identities and how these identities are shaped by mainstream myths around Chicanx and Latinx young people, particularly with the common stereotype of the struggling, underachieving inner-city teens. Contributors also grapple with how young adults reclaim what it means to be an outsider, weirdo, nerd, or goth, and how the reclamation of these marginalized identities expand conversations around authenticity and narrow understandings of what constitutes cultural identity. Included are analysis of such texts as I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Shadowshaper, Swimming While Drowning, and others. Addressed in the essays are themes of outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx children's and young adult literature, and the contributors insist that to understand Latinx youth identities it is necessary to shed light on outsiders within an already marginalized ethnic group: nerds, goths, geeks, freaks, and others who might not fit within such Latinx popular cultural paradigms as the chola and cholo, identities that are ever-present in films, television, and the internet.
Call Number: Main Collection PS153.M4 N48 2020ISBN: 9781496827456Publication Date: 2020-03-18
Latino and Latina Writers by
This title in the Scribner Writers Series provides in-depth biographical and critical essays on more than 50 Latino/Latina writers. Seven thematic essays consider each writer's works in relation to music, language, feminism and other key topics. Covering well-known writers, such as Sandra Cisneros and Luis J. Rodriguez, as well as lesser known but still significant authors, such as Tino Villanueva and Achy Obegas, this set gives researchers detailed coverage of the vibrant works of literature written by Cuban, Dominican, Chicano and Puerto Rican authors.
Call Number: Reference Collection Ref PS 153.H56 L39 2004ISBN: 9780684312941Publication Date: 2003-12-01
