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American Literature

Literary Criticism Databases

To search the MLA Database: 
go to lamar.edu/library, click the Database List tab, click the letter M, scroll to MLA International Bibliograpy

Finding criticism on a particular work in the MLA database is easy!

1.       Enter the author’s last name in the first search box (For example, “Faulkner”)

2.      Enter the title of the work in the second search box (For example, “As I Lay Dying”)

3.      Hitting enter will bring up a list of citations.  These are all the items in the database that contain information on both Faulkner AND As I Lay Dying.  *FYI: This list also contains all the information needed for your Works Cited Page

4.      Citations with linked full text or a PDF full text link can be viewed online, saved, or printed.

5.      If the article is not full text in the MLA database, look up the journal in Journal Finder to see if the journal is full text in a different database. To search for a journal in our library click on the "Journals" tab on the library homepage and enter the title of the Journal/Magazine/Newspaper.

6.      A computer icon will indicate we have online access to at least some issues from that Journal.  Clicking on the computer icon will take you to the list of databases we subscribe to that offer access to that journal.  The available dates will be found on the right.  An open book icon indicates we have access to issues of that journal or magazine in print.  Clicking on the book icon will take you to our print holdings for that journal.

Ask for help at the reference desk on the first floor if you need help locating books or journals.