ENGL 695 - Topics in Literature

This guide provides information about resources to aid students enrolled in ENGL 695 locate relevant research material. As this is a topics class, students should look for the subpage named for their topic in addition to the home page.

Library Research Guide

Post-Colonial Literature

This page provides guidance specifically related to post-colonial literature. Visit the English research guide, also linked from this guide's home page, for additional resources.

This guide, and many of the resources described within, presents three spellings for the course topic:

  • post-colonialism
  • postcolonialism
  • post colonialism

Keep these spelling variations in mind when searching for materials.

Other language variations to learn are the colonial and postcolonial names for the countries or cities that are featured in the work being studied. (Yes, Wikipedia can help with that.)

Want to even more information about research materials for post-colonial literature?

Journals

These journals are a sampling of those that focus on post-colonial literatures. Follow the links to browse issues. If the full text of an article is not available online or on the shelf, request a copy through Interlibrary Loan.

The guide provided above, Literary Research and Postcolonial Literatures in English, includes information about additional journals.

Because the full text of all of these journals is not available online, use databases like MLA and Google Scholar to conduct a more thorough search (see the Databases box below.)

Databases

Databases such as MLA and Google Scholar will allow you to search and find at least the citations of articles. Note that these databases tend to focus on journals typically read and cited in European and North American scholarly venues.

Scholars in Africa and India are working to increase access to their scholarship through websites such as the ones listed below.

(If you are aware of similar sites in other former Commonwealth countries, please let me know.)

Cultural Context

Understand more about cultural and historical events framing the work you are studying.

Secondary Sources

These databases provide academic articles that will primarily serve as secondary sources.

Primary Sources - Databases

These databases will provide primary sources (voices). Be sure to consider what perspective or bias may be present.

Primary Sources - Archives and Collections

Search for archives, papers, photographs, film, and other primary sources that will provide the voice of someone who witnessed or experienced an event related to your work. These collections may be freely available on the internet.

Below are samples of the types of primary sources you might find.