African American Literature

Finding Articles

This Guide is intended to help identify resources for both basic and advanced research in African American literature.

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The MLA International Bibliography is a subject index for books, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), this electronic version of the Bibliography dates back to 1925 and contains over 2.2 million citations from more than 4,400 periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals) and 1,000 book publishers.
Literature Online This link opens in a new window
Literature Online (LION) combines the texts of over 355,000 literary works with a vast library of key criticism and reference resources.
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL), 1920 - This link opens in a new window
ABELL indexes monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, doctoral dissertations, book reviews and collections of essays concerning English language, literature, bibliography and folklore published anywhere in the world from 1920 onwards.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Literature Resource Center provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors (novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers) from every age and literary discipline.

International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP)
In addition to indexing over 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers, and newsletters from the US, Africa, and the Caribbean, IIBP includes full text coverage of 25 core Black Studies periodicals from 1998 forward.

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Covers U.S. ethnic and minority newspapers and other periodicals, many not in library print collections, from the late 1950s to the present. The full text of the article is available from the citation list produced by keyword searches. English and Spanish searching available.
America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
Premier index of journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, and dissertations pertaining to the study of United States and Canadian History, from prehistory to the present. Coverage is 1910-present.

American Periodical series
A selection of periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.

GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
With titles covering different moments from 1970 to the present, GenderWatch is a repository of important historical perspectives on the evolution of the women's movement, men's studies, the transgender community and the changes in gender roles over the years. Publications include scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books and NGO, government and special reports. A ProQuest collection.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is a collection of scholarly ebooks and journals across disciplines. The journal archive includes back issues and some current issues.

Project Muse
Project Muse offers full-text, online access to hundreds of humanities, arts, and social sciences journals.