Literary Research

[Scoggy]

I am writing a term paper over Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" essay, and I'm in need of some resources. Does anyone know of any good websites or free databases where I can find some solid resources to use in my research? I've been trying to find stuff in my university's library database, but as I am overseas and do not have access to their printed materials, I really haven't made much progress.

[Scoggy]

Bump......

[The Comedian]

I hope this doesn't sound too obvious, but have you tried Google Scholar? I know that they have a few scholarly articles and access to databases that don't require subscriptions.

Also, I don't know if you're from the US, but if you are, Ebsco Host I believe is free and it has quite a few scholarly articles. (I could be wrong on this second suggestion, I'm going from distant memory here).

Hope this helps!

[Petrarch's Love]

Since you have access to a university library system, have you tried looking at your uni library page to see what electronic journals and databases they may subscribe to? It will depend upon the size of the university, but many universities these days have electronic access to a very large amount of scholarly articles that students can access via a university proxy server. If they have the JSTOR database, you should be able to find some good material, since that has a huge selection of literary articles, all fully search-able and available for pdf download. Project Muse is another good humanities e-journal database that may be available via your university library. You could also try a search on the MLA database, which will search mostly for main keywords and titles of articles and will bring up a list of both print and electronic material (an MLA search is where a literary researcher would usually begin looking for a general sense of crit. these days). Your university library page may also have a list of individual e-journals they have access to in the field of literature.

Good luck with your research.

[Scoggy]

I hope this doesn't sound too obvious, but have you tried Google Scholar? I know that they have a few scholarly articles and access to databases that don't require subscriptions.

Also, I don't know if you're from the US, but if you are, Ebsco Host I believe is free and it has quite a few scholarly articles. (I could be wrong on this second suggestion, I'm going from distant memory here).

Hope this helps!

Yes, I tried Google Scholar. It didn't really help much as you have to pay to look at most things of any interest.

Since you have access to a university library system, have you tried looking at your uni library page to see what electronic journals and databases they may subscribe to? It will depend upon the size of the university, but many universities these days have electronic access to a very large amount of scholarly articles that students can access via a university proxy server. If they have the JSTOR database, you should be able to find some good material, since that has a huge selection of literary articles, all fully search-able and available for pdf download. Project Muse is another good humanities e-journal database that may be available via your university library. You could also try a search on the MLA database, which will search mostly for main keywords and titles of articles and will bring up a list of both print and electronic material (an MLA search is where a literary researcher would usually begin looking for a general sense of crit. these days). Your university library page may also have a list of individual e-journals they have access to in the field of literature.

Good luck with your research.

This is actually the first thing I tried. Logically, it would get me what I needed, but JSTOR and the other databases that my uni subscribes to just didn't have a lot on "Shooting an Elephant" specifically.

Thank you both for you suggestions, though.