Literary Research
“Critic Kenneth Burke describes it as an engagement in
a conversation that may stretch back thousands of
years and include any number of other scholarly
voices. You contribute to that conversation by making
yourself an informed participant in it. You become not
just a careful reader of the text in question, but a
historian of that text’s life. You know when it was
born, who its friends and enemies were, what it
accomplished for better or for worse, and how it has
been remembered by those who came after it. In
knowing those things and contributing to the
conversation about the text, you keep it alive—not
just the text, but the conversation, which is probably
even more important.
--Geoff Baker, English professor, CSU Chico
What could I write about?
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Analysis of characters
Comparison to other works (literary, artistic)
Reading based on a critical perspective
Study of historical events that inspired it
Analysis of an image, theme, etc.
Study of the context in which the work was
written
Where should I start?
• Read the primary text carefully
• Develop a working hypothesis
• Phrase it as a research question
Where does “research” come in?
Types of secondary sources
– Background and context
– Literary criticism
• About the work
• About the author
• About other authors or works
– Sources from other relevant fields of study
Where should I look?
• Library databases
– LIRN / Literature Resource Center
– Gale Virtual Reference Library
– WorldCat (books)
• Google
– Google Scholar*
– Google Books*
* Source not in full text? Request it via interlibrary loan!
What am I looking for?
• Arguments
• Close readings (especially of passages you’ve
highlighted)
• Patterns in the critical reception
What do I do with it once I find it?
• Make your argument
• Give evidence from the primary text
• Where appropriate, introduce secondary
source information to support your
interpretation
• Draw conclusions and explain the significance
of your argument