Reference Humdinger #5

The Oxford Companions to Literature Online

The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature
The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English
The Oxford Companion to Chaucer
A Dictionary of Shakespeare
A Dictionary of Writers and their Works

...and much more!

What are the Companions?

The Oxford Companions to Literature are a reference institution. They provide all kinds of basic information to orient you in a field of literature, from author biographies to plot summaries and explanations of terms. Oxford University Press has taken the full content of the print companions (which we have in the reference section of the library) and put them online, so you can search them from your computer. There are Oxford Companions to just about every discipline of study.

How do I find the online version of the Companions?

If you know the title of a specific Companion that you want to look through, type its title into the online library catalog and follow the link to the online version. If you just want to see what's available, do a title search on "oxford reference online" and browse through the results. Once you click on the link to enter any Companion, you can search any and all of the Companions by clicking on the "Home" link on the Oxford Reference Online website.

What are the Oxford Companions good for?

You can use the companions to find answers to specific questions, like:
* When did Emily Dickinson live? (1830-1886, found by searching "Emily Dickinson\" in The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature)
* Who is Easy Rawlins? (The protagonist in Walter Mosley's detective novels, with considerable more detail given, found by searching "Easy Rawlins\" in The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
* What is metonymy? (A figure of speech that replaces the name of one thing with the name of something else closely associated with it, with examples given, found by searching "metonymy\" in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms)

You can also browse the Companions to deepen your knowledge of a field of literature. If you're studying for comps, the GRE, or any other wide-ranging test of literature knowledge, the Companions are a great way to bone up fast. You can browse all entries in the literature companions by clicking on the "Browse\" tab at the top of every screen.

What if I don't know which Companion to use?

You don't have to. You can search every Oxford Companion at once from the home page for the series, or you can search just the literature companions by clicking on the "Literature\" subject heading. Results will be ranked by relevance.

Is there anything else I should know?

* We own the companions in print in Knight Reference, if you prefer books to screens. Look up titles in the catalog, or ask a librarian to show you where they are.
* You can access the electronic version of the Companions from home or anywhere else. You'll have to log in with your name, student number, and PIN (which is your student number again, if you never changed it.)
* The "links\" section of the Companions links you to key online resources for literature, many of them completely independent of Oxford. They're worth checking out if you're starting out in a new field.

Final analysis:

* The Oxford Companions are a time-honored standby of readers everywhere. Even if you own your own copies, remember that you can get electronic access to all of the Companions (from Accounting through the World Encyclopedia) through the library catalog.

If you have questions or comments, please get in touch!

Maintained by: Elizabeth Peterson, emp@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 12/04/2006