Library Guide to Ethnic Literature

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Note: This page is dedicated to general resources for the study of ethnic literature on the Web (e.g., African-American Literature, Asian-American Literature). For more general information on literature resources on the web, go to the Guide to Literature.

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To Find Books

Use the MERLIN Library Catalog and the MOBIUS Union Catalog to find resources relevant to your research. Relevant works can be found using subject headings (Library of Congress) such as:

• American Literature - African-American Authors
• American Literature - Asian-American Authors - History and Criticism
• American Literature - Indian Authors - Bibliography
• American Literature - Mexican American Authors - Literary Collections
• Indian Literature - North America
• Indians of North America - Literary Collections
• Literature - Black Authors

Although the ethnic group names given above are the ones most often used for describing various ethnic literatures, there are many cases in which more specific group names may be used as well (or instead), for example:

• Laguna Indians - Fiction
• Navajo Indians - Fiction
• American Literature - Chinese American Authors
• Japanese Americans - Literary Collections

Examples of ethnic literature and studies of the representation of ethnic groups in literature can also be found by using subject headings such as:

• African-Americans in Literature
• Asian-Americans in Literature
• Indians in Literature
• Mexican Americans in Literature
• Navajo Indians in Literature

To find the location of a book in Miller Nichols Library, see the Location Guide.

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To Find Articles

Remote (off-campus) access to databases is available only to UMKC students, faculty, and staff. All other users must access online resources within the Libraries. Begin searching by selecting a database. After selection you will be prompted to provide a UMKC Single Sign-On user name and password OR a 9-digit UMKC ID number followed by the letter k (example: 0123456789k) and last name, as needed.

• Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) 1975 - present.     Save to del.icio.us
  Selected full text 1975 - present.
  This multidisciplinary database indexes and abstracts journals in a broad range of subjects. Full text is available for a large proportion of the titles. A high percentage of titles are peer-reviewed. Dates of coverage vary widely by title. All content of Academic Search Elite is included in this resource.
• Hispanic American Periodicals (HAPI) 1970 - present.     Save to del.icio.us Cites materials on a wide range of topics related to Hispanics in the United States and Latin America from sources published in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
• ISI Web of Science
  Note: This database is no longer available. Permits multidisciplinary searching for articles from international academic journals in the sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities. This combined database for the Science Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index offers cited reference searching. Link to ISI Web of Science user's guide.
• MLA International Bibliography (Chadwyck-Healey) 1884 - present.     Save to del.icio.usAn index to scholarship in literature, linguistics, film, folklore, and cultural studies. The print version of this bibliography is available in the Miller Nichols Library and covers 1921 - 1999. The location and call number are Reference Index Wall Z7006 .M64. See the MLA Directory of Periodicals for a list of periodicals indexed.
• OmniFile V Full Text (Wilson) 1982 - present.     Save to del.icio.us
  Selected full text 1994 - present.Provides indexing, abstracts, and some full-text from five of Wilson's full-text indexes: General Science Full Text, Humanities Full Text, Readers' Guide Full Text, Social Sciences Full Text, and Wilson Business Full Text.Also in print (1974-1997).
  Ref Index Wall 2 Z5579 .H8.

NOTE: To find the full text of articles or other information that you have identified using the databases and indexes above, visit the Libraries' Website on Resources for Finding Journals and Articles.

University Libraries Photocopying and Printing Services

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Reference Sources: Encyclopedias, Bibliographies

Reference sources are useful for locating background information, definitions, general descriptions, and basic facts. Use these books to help you select or focus your research topic.

All call numbers in this guide refer to the UMKC Miller Nichols Library, unless otherwise noted. Titles are linked to the corresponding MERLIN Library Catalog record.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

African American Writers	Ref. PS153 .N5 A344
American Ethnic Writers	Ref PS153 .M56 A414 v. 1 & 2
Biographical Dictionary of Hispanic Literature in the United States: The Literature of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and other Hispanic Writers	Ref. PQ7420.2 .K3
Chicano Literature: A Reference Guide	Ref. PS153 .M4 C46
Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 82): Chicano Writers (first series)	Ref. PN451 .D43 v.82
Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 122): Chicano Writers (second series)	Ref. PN451 .D43 v.122
Dictionary of Literary Biography (vol. 175): Native American Writers of the United States	Ref. PN451 .D43 v.175
Dictionary of Native American Literature	Ref. PM155 .D53
Native American Literatures: An Encyclopedia of Works, Characters, Authors, and Themes	Ref PS153 .I52 W47
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature	Ref. PS153 .N5 O96
The Schomburg Center Guide to Black Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present	Ref. PN841 .V36

Bibliographies

American Ethnic Literatures: Native American, African American. Chicano/Latino, and Asian American Writers and Their Backgrounds	Ref. PS153 .M56 P43
American Indian Literatures: An Introduction, Bibliographic Review, and Selected Bibliography	PM155 .R86
Asian American Literature: An Annotated Bibliography	Ref. PS153 .A84 C47
Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and their Social Context	PS153 .A84 K55
Contemporary Native American Literature: A Selected & Partially-Annotated Bibliography	Ref. Z1229 .I52 J32
The Schomburg Center Guide to Black Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present	Ref. PN841 .V36

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Web Resources

• Literary Resources on the Net: Ethnicities and Nationalities
  Part of Jack Lynch's larger "Literary Resources" project, this page includes references to "sites that address race, ethnicity, or national identity explicitly." Be sure to visit other pages to locate information on authors whose work is not defined exclusively in terms of race, ethnicity, or national origin.
  (andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ethnic.html)
• Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color
  An instructional site dedicated to the study of women writers of color and to fostering the inclusion of these authors into classroom teaching. Includes extensive biographical information, bibliographies, and links to related discussion lists and internet resources.
  (voices.cla.umn.edu/)

African-American Literature

• Writing Black (Keele University)
  A site developed by the American Studies Program at Keele University (U.K.) with links to Internet resources and electronic texts.
  (www.keele.ac.uk/depts/as/Literature/amlit-black.html)
• African-American Women Writers in the 19th Century (New York Public Library)
  A collection of over 50 texts from the NYPL Schomburg Collection, all available in electronic form.
  (digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/)
• Callaloo
  Available only to UMKC-affiliated users.
  A Project Muse title, Callaloo is a scholarly journal concerned with the study of African and African American literature. Available online from 1995- .
  (muse.jhu.edu/journals/cal/index.html)
• 4 Women Writers (University of Missouri-Kansas City)
  An online exhibition of the works of four twentieth-century, African-American women writers (Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Ntozake Shange, and Alice Walker) available for use in the UMKC Miller Nichols Library. Includes bibliographies and links to related Internet resources.

Asian-American Literature

• Anagram (Johns Hopkins University)
  An online journal concerned with the study of Asian-American literature and art.
  (www.jhu.edu/~anagram/)
• Asian-American Literature: Sources for Research
  (www.sjsu.edu/faculty/awilliams/AsianAmResources.html)
• South Asian-American Literature - Berkeley
  (alumni.eecs.berkeley.edu/~manish)

Hispanic Literature

• Hispanic Reading Room, Library of Congress
  (www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic)

• UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center - Online Bibliography
  (www.chicano.ucla.edu/library/resources.html)

Native American Literature

• Native American Authors (Internet Public Library)
  An excellent metasite for Native American literature, searchable by author's name, title of work, or author's tribal affiliation. Includes links to related Internet resources.
  (ipl.si.umich.edu/div/natam/)
• Native American Literature Resources - University of Arizona
  (www.library.arizona.edu/library/teams/fah/subpathpages/natamlit/natamlit.shtml)

Use search engines linked on the Internet Search Tools page to identify additional Web resources.

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For further assistance, please contact the
Miller Nichols Library Reference Desk at (816) 235-1534.

Revised by Carrie Donovan