RESEARCH GUIDE: FRENCH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE
This guide recommends selected print and electronic resources available through the Centre College Library. Each section indicates appropriate search tools that can be used to find information or additional sources. For some research topics it may be useful to look at more than one subject guide. For help contact a Reference Librarian.
Reference Sources | Books | Journal Articles | Dictionaries | Texts | Internet Sites
- Contemporary Authors -- REFERENCE Z1224.C6
- Biographical and bibliographic information on current authors in fiction, general non-fiction, peotry, drama, film, and other fields. Includes contemporary French authors.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography
- Each title in this series contains articles that include extensive biographical information, photographs, an overview of works published, and bibliographies. Titles for French literature are French Dramatists, 1789-1914 (REFERENCE PQ501.F733 1998), French Novelists, 1900-1930 (REFERENCE PQ671.F67 1998), French Novelists, 1930-1960 (REFERENCE PQ671.F68 1988), French Novelists Since 1960 (REFERENCE PQ671.F69 1989)
- Dictionnaire des Litteratures de Langue Francaise. 3 vols. -- REFERENCE PQ41.D55 1984
- This comprehensive guide provides articles covering criticism, genres, themes, periods, and authors. Author entries provide detailed biblographies. It includes literature from France, Africa, Canada, and the Caribbean.
- European Writers. 14 vols. -- REFERENCE PN501.E9 1983
- This series on the history and criticism of European literature discusses European authors from the Middle Ages to modern times. The coverage of major French authors is extensive and articles are accompanied by bibliographies.
- Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature -- REFERENCE PQ149.F47 1999
- Bibliographic and biographical information on French women writers from the Middle Ages to the modern era. The signed articles discuss feminist and literary topics and provide short listings of related primary and secondary sources.
- French Women Writers: a Bio-Bibliographic Source Book -- REFERENCE PQ149.F73 1991
- Covers the lives of women considered important to the history of French literature and provides a chronology of events and discussion of literary trends of significance to French women. Entries are arranged chronologically and bibliographies are provided. Subject and author indexes are included.
- Grande Larousse. 5 vols. -- REFERENCE AE25.G638 1989
- French language encyclopedia.
- Guide to French Literature. 2 vols. -- REFERENCE PQ103.L48 1992
- Contains substantial entries for individuals and literary movements. Includes comprehensive bibliographies of works and selective lists of largely book-length studies.
- New Oxford Companion to Literature in French -- REFERENCE PQ41.N48 1995
- An alphabetical guide to authors, works and concepts in French literature. Especially useful in explaining literary periods or concepts.
- Centre Library Online Catalog
- Contains the cataloged holdings of the Centre College Library.
- Kentucky Virtual Library
- Use KYVL to search other Kentucky libraries, including the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.
- Interlibrary Loan
- Use the Interlibrary Loan service to borrow books and journal articles from other libraries.
- Worldcat
- WorldCat contains records for the holdings of several thousand libraries. This is an excellent starting point for identifying and locating material beyond the Centre College library.
- Academic Search Premier
- A multi-disciplinary index to periodicals, Academic Search Premier provides indexing for over 8,000 scholarly and popular periodicals, and full text for more than 4,500 of these. Designed specifically for academic institutions, ASP spans most areas of study. Coverage varies, but most titles begin in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
- Arts and Humanities Search
- An international interdisciplinary index to the literature of the arts and humanities. Although this is a citation database, there are links to Centre's e-journal holdings to locate the full text if available. Coverage is from 1980 to the present.
- Essay and General Literature Index
- An index to English-language essays in collections and anthologies, this index is useful for finding articles, interviews, etc. about authors. This index does a good job of covering contemporary French literary criticism.
- MLA International Bibliography
- The MLA bibliography is the largest and most comprehensive database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics, literature, folklore, and drama. MLA provides access to scholarly articles in approximately 4,000 journals and series. It also covers relevant monographs, book chapters, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies and dissertations. Coverage is from 1926 to the present.
- Humanities Full Text (OmniFile Full Text Mega)
- Includes indexing, abstracting, and full text from core academic journals in the humanities. Coverage of French literature and literary criticism is extensive. Indexing dates back to 1984. Full text of articles begins in 1995.
4.1 Current
- Collins-Robert French-English, English-French Dictionary -- REFERENCE PC2640.C69 1987
- An excellent one volume English-French, French-English dictionary
- Oxford Hachette French Dictionary -- REFERENCE PC2640.O94 1994
- One volume French-English, English-French dictionary, featuring more than 360,000 words and phrases, and 550,000 translations.
- Concise Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (Oxford Reference Online) [English-French] [French-English]
- Includes 175,000 words and phrases, 270,000 translations, plus cultural notes on life in the French-speaking world.
- Oxford Business French Dictionary (Oxford Reference Online) [English-French] [French-English]
- Coverage of core business vocabulary from a wide range of fields, including accountancy, banking, economics, human resource management, law, sales and marketing, the stock market, management, taxation, insurance, and information technology.
4.2 Historical
- Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française (ARTFL). 1694 edition.
- Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française (ARTFL). 1762 edition.
- Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française (ARTFL). 1798 edition.
- Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française (ARTFL). 1835 edition.
- Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française (ARTFL). 1932-35 edition.
- ABU: la Bibliothèque Universelle
- Consists of 101 francophone authors and 288 texts.
- ARTFL (Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language)
- French-language literary, religious, philosophical, political, and scientific works from the 13th through the 20th centuries, ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing. ARTFL also includes a Provençal database. Genres include novels, verse, theater, journalism, essays, correspondence, and treatises.
- Electronic Text Center: French Language Resources (University of Virginia)
- An extensive archive of electronic texts, this source lets users carry out keyword searches of numerous literary works by famous French authors. Some sources are restricted to subscribers.
- Gallica
- This database from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France lists over 300,000 images and 100,000 full-text sources related to French literature from the Middle ages to the 19th century. The database is searchable by author, date, or period. All information on the website is in French.
- American Association of Teachers of French (AATF)
- The largest national association of French teachers in the world
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France [English]
- Online catalog of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
- Embassy of France in the United States
- Web site of the French embassy.
- Frenchculture.org
- The web site of the French Embassy's Cultural Services in the United States.
- French Studies Web
- Part of the Western European Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, the French Studies Web provides annotated links to scholarly web resources.
- Voice of the Shuttle: French Literature
- French literature websites; includes all time periods, many author websites.
Last updated September 9, 2008