African-American Literary Traditions
Professor: Gabrielle Foreman
Librarian: Joan Campbell
Fall 2008
Background/Biographical Information
You can find "background information" in encyclopedias and dictionaries which will help you get an overview of a writer, his or her work overall, or a particular theme. These sources often list books and journal articles for further study. There are many, many encyclopedias and dictionaries dedicated to African-American writers and history. I've listed some below. See also the Quick Facts page for online reference sources to get quick, authoritative definitions and facts.
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American experience. Main Ref DT14 .A37435 2005
African American authors, 1745-1945 : bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. Main Ref PS 153 N5 A32 2000.
Black Women in America. Main Ref E 185.86 B542 2005.
Dictionary of Literary Biography
A huge series of books now online. Good for finding authoritative biographical and general critical information on your playwrights and their plays. Also available in print. See especially Afro-American writers before the Harlem renaissance, Afro-American writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940 and Afro-American writers after 1955, all located in Main Ref around PS153.N5 A39.
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers. Main Ref PS 153 N5 E49 2007.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Main Ref E185 E54 1995.
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Main Ref PS 153 N5 A24.
Greenwood Encyclopedia Of African American Literature. Reference PS153.N5 G73 2005
Oxford African American Studies Center.
Searchable database of biographical and historical information on African Americans. Good for images.
Primary Sources
African American history in the press, 1851-1899: from the coming of the Civil War to the rise of Jim Crow as reported and illustrated in selected newspapers of the time. Main Ref E185.2 .A25 1996
New York Times Archive 1851-2004
An exact replica of the New York Times.
Oxford African American Studies Center.
Secondary Sources
Library Catalogs for Books
Bowdoin College Library Catalog
Access to Bowdoin Library's holdings of books, videos, government documents, etc.
NExpress
Search --and borrow from--the combined collections of Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Williams, Northeastern, Middlebury, and Wellesley for both books and articles. Books arrive from Colby and Bates in two days.
- Subject Searching in Bowdoin's Library Catalog: Browse the book shelves online by connecting to a major subject section of the Library. Some examples follow:
American Literature -- African-American Authors
Indexes/Databases for Finding Journal Articles
- Academic Search Premier
Journals in the social sciences, humanities and science. Many full text. -
America: History and Life
Journal articles on American history, written since 1954.
JSTOR
Full text of scholarly journal articles up until about 2003.
MLA International Bibliography
An index to journal articles, books, and chapters in books on literature and film. Many links to the full text of journal articles.
Finding Images and Music
See our Streaming Music page as well.
American Broadsides and Ephemera.
Oxford African American Studies Center.
Digital Schomburg
From the New York Public Library Schaumburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
American Memory from the Library Of Congress.
Additional Sources
See also the Research Guide to English and Africana Studies
