Library Guides: French Literature: Reference Sources

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Grand Robert This link opens in a new window
Primary dictionary of the French language
New Oxford Companion to Literature in French This link opens in a new window
Covers ten centuries of work produced in France and other Francophone countries.
3,000 entries covering ten centuries of work produced in France and other Francophone countries.

Ouvrages de référence
From the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a compilation of reference works available in Gallica.

Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new window
Subject or theme based collections of content. Excellent starting places for research.
This database offers subject or theme based collections of content within a richly functional, fully cross-searchable online environment. The books in these series survey scholarship on individual writers or other notable people, on schools of thought, and other topics. They serve as textbooks, as excellent starting places for research, and as scholarly works in their own right.

Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature This link opens in a new window
Covers fiction, prose, poetry, drama, prominent writers, literary magazines, publishers, and more general topics in Canadian literature
Covers fiction, prose, poetry, drama, prominent writers, literary magazines, publishers, and more general topics.

Grand Robert This link opens in a new window
Primary dictionary of the French language
Primary dictionary of the French language
Dictionnaire de l’Académie française This link opens in a new window
It’s the Académie française’s French-language dictionary, which contains only the “correct” version of the French language.

Dictionnaire vivant de la langue française
Petit Larousse illustré
All of the editions of the Petit Larousse illustré from 1906-1948

Collins French Dictionary Plus This link opens in a new window
French/English dictionary and grammar

Oxford Bibliographies Online - Literary and Critical Theory This link opens in a new window
Literary theory has become the hegemonic methodology for the study of text and is often regarded both as a sub-discipline in itself and as a critical tool through which to liberate deeper and more complex meanings from texts. It encompasses a massive range of topics, including periods, movements, themes and works that make it a dynamic field of study. Given that literary theory draws from other disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, the social sciences and work from non-Anglophone cultures and traditions, the very scope which makes it a necessary tool for contemporary academics and intellectuals can be off-putting in terms of locating a starting point for any specific inquiry. Oxford Bibliographies in Literary and Critical Theory will offer clearly-signposted pathways through the different areas, and will make clear references to the other disciplines which feed in to, and are often transformed by, literary theory.
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms This link opens in a new window
Covers traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history, as well as advice on further reading and a pronunciation guide
Over 1,200 entries cover traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history, as well as updated and extended advice on recommended further reading and a pronunciation guide to more than 200 terms.

Key Concepts in Postcolonial Literature This link opens in a new window
Provides an overview of the main themes, issues, and critical perspectives in postcolonial literature.
Provides an overview of the main themes, issues, and critical perspectives that have had the greatest effect on postcolonial literatures.
Études critiques du 19ème siècle This link opens in a new window
Monographs, serialized articles, prefaces, and manifestos reproducing the great literary debates that animated the nineteenth century.
Editions Bibliopolis. French literary and artistic criticism.
New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics This link opens in a new window
Dictionary of popular terms in poetry and poetics.

Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
Provides nearly 10,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window
Complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 authors.
Provides complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors.

L’ÎLE: l'Infocentre Littéraire des écrivains
Biographical resource for Quebec writers and literature

World Biographical Information System Online (WBIS) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive biographical database providing short biographical information on 3.6 million persons with a historical coverage.
Comprehensive biographical database providing short biographical information on 3.6 million persons with a historical coverage. Digital facsimile articles from more than 2,300 reference works are also included for 1.3 persons.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of people who played an important role in the formation of what is now Canada.
Biographies of people who played an important role in the formation of what is now Canada. This first phase presents persons who died between the years 1000 and 1930 or whose last known date of activity falls within these years.

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