RESEARCH GUIDE: GERMAN 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
- Companion to German Literature - REFERENCE PT236.S55 1997
- The articles in this companion look at individuals and topics from all German-speaking regions of Europe. They range from brief biographical sketches to in-depth analyses of subjects related to German literature.
- Companion to Twentieth-Century German Literature - REFERENCE PT401.C65 1990
- Brief bio-bibliographic articles on authors from the eastern and western parts of Germany as well as Austria and Switzerland.
- 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 German 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 German literature are German Baroque Writers, 1580-1660 (REFERENCE PT271.G47 1996), German Baroque Writers, 1661-1730 (REFERENCE PT271.G48 1996), German Writers From the Enlightment to Sturm und Drang, 1720-1764 (REFERENCE PT293.G47 1990), German Writers in the Age of Goethe (REFERENCE PT311 .G48 1990), Nineteenth-Century German Writers, 1841-1900 (REFERENCE PT341.N56 1993), Twentieth-Century German Dramatists, 1889-1918 (REFERENCE PT666.T86 1992), Twentieth-Century German Dramatists, 1919-1992 (REFERENCE PT666.T87 1992)
- Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture - REFERENCE DD290.26.E53 1999
- Extensive articles on contemporary German authors and literature, and coverage of the issues, politics, and policies that influence German writers and their writings. The focus is on Germany, but subjects related to Austria and Switzerland are also studied.
- Encyclopedia of German Literature. 2 vols. -- REFERENCE PT41.E53 1999
- Comprehensive articles covering authors, works, movement, and periods of German literature and related subjects. Entries are accompanied by brief bibliographies.
- 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 German authors is extensive and articles are accompanied by bibliographies.
- Meyers neues Lexikon. 10 vols. - Reference AE27.M69 1993
- A general German-language encyclopedia. Scope is international, but with emphasis on central Europe.
- Oxford Companion to German Literature - REFERENCE PT41.G3 1997
- A handbook to German authors, literary works, and terms. This 1997 edition reflects Germany's reunification and provides information about new authors (including previously neglected women writers), titles, and literary trends of the late 1980s through mid-1990s.
- 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 German 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 German literature and literary criticism is extensive. Indexing dates back to 1984. Full text of articles begins in 1995.
- Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm (University of Trier)
- A searchable digital version of this important historical German dictionary.
- Concise Oxford-Duden German Dictionary (Oxford Reference Online)
- Includes 150,000 words and phrases; 250,000 translations.
- Anthology of Medieval German Literature
- Electronic Text Center: German Online Resources (University of Virginia)
- Electronic Text Center: Middle High German (University of Virginia)
- Literaturwelt: Autorinnen und Autoren
- Author listings provide access to electronic texts.
- Litrix.de: German Literature Online
- Focuses on contemporary German literature.
- Nineteenth-Century German Stories
- A collection of full-text 19th-century German stories, images and teaching materials.
- Sophie: A Digital Library of Works by German-Speaking Women
- A digital library of fiction written by German women between 1740 and 1923.
- German Studies Web
- An excellent starting point for German Literature on the Web, created and maintained by the Germanists of the Western European Specialists Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. All sources on these pages have undergone review.
- Karlsruhe Virtuelle Katalog
- The best starting point for searching German library catalogs, the KVK is a powerful "meta-catalog" that allows simultaneous searching of multiple library catalogs, among them those of Die Deutsche Bibliothek and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the regional union catalogs, Austrian and Swiss libraries, and other national catalogs.
- Voice of the Shuttle: German Literature
- French literature websites; includes all time periods, many author websites.
Last updated January 16, 2008