Literature Resource Center (LRC) is one of several new literature databases Cowles Library has added to help support all types of literary research. These databases expand our online access to literary criticism, critical reviews, author biographies, along with thousands of poems, plays, and works of short fiction. LRC includes biographical information about authors and literary criticism of authors’ works from dozens of sources. LRC covers a wide range of literature–not just fiction–from all time periods and from around the world.
LRC also includes several tools that help you establish the context surrounding authors and their works.
- Topic Finder is a graphical way of displaying the context of your term, which can lead to connections you may not have otherwise considered.
- Term Frequency shows the trend of one or more terms over time.
- Criticism Over Time (image, below) displays a timeline of literary criticism for a particular work and allows you to jump right to critical essays from a given year.
You can use LRC in conjunction with LitFinder, which provides access to the full text of thousands of poems and short stories. Visit our LRC Research Guide and LitFinder Research Guide for more information and video tutorials.
