L204: Introduction to Fiction
Your Assignment
- Demonstrate your ability to evaluate and discuss the literary merits of a previously unread piece of fiction
- Use research skills to find a recent short story that you find interesting from a literary standpoint
- Write a 2-3 page introduction to the story that explains to a reader why this story is interesting from a literary standpoint, discussing elements such as theme, characterization, plot, symbolism, setting and style
- Give a 5-10 minute oral introduction to the story you have chosen that gives your classmates a reason to be interested in seeking out the text
Find Useful Keywords
New Pages - This list of literary magazines can help you find find authors, topics, and possibly specific short stories to use as keywords in your searches. This is a chance to brainstorm and think of many different possibilities. What are your interests? Someone may have written a story about them!
Find A Story
IUCAT, the library catalog. The catalog will tell you what books, magazines, journals, movies, sound recordings, government publications, etc. the IU Libraries own. Try the following seaches: keyword: short story or short stories AND keyword: inheritance subject: American Literature AND keyword: short story or short stories
MLA Bibliography International - This source indexes material in modern languages,literature, linguistics and folklore. It contains references to scholarly research in more than 3000 journals and series, in monographs, chapters of books, working papers, dissertations,proceedings, Festschriften and bibliographies.
- Advanced Search --> genre--> short story
- Limit by years (1990-2007)
- Limit by language (English? :-)
- Add other search terms to limit (author, subject, etc.)
Find Online Literary Journals
- Choose Advanced Search, Periodical Search
- Enter the name of the periodical you hope to find (Ploughshares, for example)
Find Literary Criticism (what other people have said about your story/book)
MLA Bibliography International
- Advanced Search --> Choose Peer Reviewed
Find Book Reviews
- Limit to reviews.
- Friendly caution: although this resources gives you full-text (available right away) results, it also tends to have older content
Access to vast resources compiled by the Gale company. Focus is on mid-twentieth century to the present, as far as reviews are concerned.
Still looking for resources?
Try the English and American Language and Literature Subject page
Questions?
Please contact me
Rachel Slough (rslough@indiana.edu
