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American Literature

Overviews

Overviews familiarize you with the characters, setting, literary elements, and genre of the work. Overviews can be helpful and informative, but they are not criticism.

You can find overviews at Spark Notes and in a database called Magill On Literature. See Finding Articles for instructions.

NOTE: With few exceptions, overviews and reference books are tertiary sources and should not appear in your Works Cited.

Background Information