Overview of the Field             

• Best Literature By and About Blacks (2000) - REF PS 153 .N5 R52 2000
• Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature (2005) - REF PS 153 .N5 G73 2005
• Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature (2005) - REF PS 153 .M56 G74 2005
• History of African American Literature (1989) - REF PS 153 .N5 J33 1989
• Oxford Companion to African American Literature (1997) - REF PS 153 .N5 O96 1997

Critical Works                      

• African American Literary Criticism, 1773-2000 (1999) - REF PS 153 .N5  A33 1999
• African American Writers  (2001) - REF PS 153 .N5 A344 2001
• Afro-American Poets Since 1955 (1985) - REF PS 153 .N5 A39 1985 v.41
• Afro-American Writers, 1940-1955 (1988) - REF PS 153 .N5 A386 1988
• Afro-American Writers After 1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers (1985) - REF PS 153 .N5 .A39 1985 v.38
• Afro-American Writers Before the Harlem Renaissance (1986) - REF PS 153 .N5 A393 1986
• Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940 (1987) - REF PS 153 .N5 A396 1987
• Black Literature Criticism (1992) - REF PS 153 .N5 B556 1992
• Black Women in America:  Literature (1997) - REF E 185.96 .F2 1997 v.2
• Black Writers:  A Selection of Sketches From Contemporary Authors (1989) - REF E 185.96 .B545 1989
• Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) - REF PN 771 .C59
• Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism (NCLC) - REF PN 771 .N56
• Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) - REF PN 771 T86
• Background Information about African American History and Culture:The African American Almanac (1994) - REF E 185 .N45 1994
• African American Desk Reference (1999) - REF E 185 .N49 1999
• Chronology of African American History (1991) - REF E185 .H64 1991
• Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (1996) - REF E 185 .E54 1996
• Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 (2006) - REF E 185 .E545 2006
• Encyclopedia of Black America (1981) - REF E 185 .E55
• Timelines of African-American History: 500 Years of Black Achievement (1994) - REF E 185 .C86 1994

Plot and Character Analysis

• Masterpieces of African American Literature (1992) - REF PS 153 .N5 M264 1992
• Masterplots II African American Literature (1994) - REF PS 153 .N5 M2645

Search for more African American authors and titles in the Library catalog.  Books written by African American authors, criticism of their writing as well as biographies about their lives are shelved together, and can be found in the call number area of PS. You can also browse the shelves for books about history and culture starting with the call number area of  E 185.

Find magazine and journal articles about an author or an author’s works by searching the following database:

• Literature Resource Center (Gale Group)

You might also find some articles in these general databases:

• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
• InfoTrac OneFile (Gale Group)

For access to these databases from off campus, use the Databases link within the Library catalog

• African American Literature (http://bookspot.com/features/afamliterature.htm)
• African American Literature Book Club (http://aalbc.com/)
• African-American Writers: Online E-texts(http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/afroonline.htm)
• Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Black History (http://search.eb.com/blackhistory
• Internet Public Library: Literary Criticism (http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/)
• New York Public Library Digital Schomberg African American Women Writers of the 19th Century(http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/)
• Writing Black: American Studies: Keele University (http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/as/Literature/amlit-black.html)
   

Last updated September 28, 2006.