Research Guides: Dramaturgy: When and Where the Play Takes Place

Biography & Encyclopedias

Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Online biographical reference database in the fields of literature, science, business, entertainment, politics, sports, history, current events and the arts.Biographical information on over one million people throughout history, around the world.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Literature Resource Center offers biographical and other background information for research on literary topics, authors, and their works. Its coverage includes all genres and disciplines, all time periods, and all regions of the world. Literature Resource Center's content comes from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and more, including full text of selected poems, plays, and short stories.
Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
Search across a range of encyclopedias, dictionaries and more. In basic search choose Literature.
Biography & Genealogy Master Index This link opens in a new window
Indexes biographical listings in dictionaries and encyclopedias covering millions individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world.
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
Literature Online includes full text of literary works in English from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It also includes the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, together with biographic and bibliographic reference materials for each author.
A fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose. LION is the single most extensive and wide-ranging online collection of English and American literature.Resources included in this resource are: Bibliographies Biographies Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms Encyclopedia of African Literature Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003 Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 vols.) Encyclopedia of the Novel Handbook of African American Literature New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Oxford Companion to Irish Literature Penguin Classics Introductions Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2nd Edition)

Contemporary Authors in Print

Contemporary Authors
Call Number: Reference PN771 .C58 Non-circulating
ISBN: 01903616
Contemporary Dramatists
Call Number: PR737 .C57 Non-circulating

When and Where the Play Takes Place

Historical Abstracts with Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. Indexes more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages. Publication dates of coverage: 1955 to present.
America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Indexes literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes 1,700 journals and also includes citations and links to book and media reviews. Strong English-language journal coverage is balanced by an international perspective on topics and events, including abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages. Publication dates of coverage: 1964 to present.
Social Sciences Full-Text This link opens in a new window
Social Sciences Full Text provides access to important English-language journals published in the U.S. and elsewhere with full text and page images from scores of key publications, plus abstracting and indexing of hundreds of others. The database covers the latest concepts, trends, opinions, theories, and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences. Dates of coverage: 1983 to present.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences. Includes Dictionary of Contemporary History - 1945 to the present. In search box select DICTIONARIES

Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance
This encyclopedia provides authoritative and up-to-date information about theatre and performance from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments in London, Paris, New York, and around the globe. In addition to performances in playhouses, it covers dance, opera, radio, film, television, and popular performance, including carnivals, circus, and public executions. Entries range from short definitions of terms to lengthy considerations of genres and movements, such as feminism and psychoanalytic criticism. Entries on cities and regions place performance in its local social and political context. Written in accessible language, this encyclopedia brings together an international cast of over 300 specialist contributors.

Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
Search across a range of encyclopedias, dictionaries and more.
Sage Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to political science journals published by SAGE. Dates of coverage: 1890 to present.
EconLit This link opens in a new window
EconLit is published by the American Economic Association and indexes and abstracts a wide range of economics-related literature. An expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) indexes of journals, books, and dissertations, EconLit covers both economic theory and application. Coverage dates: 1969 to present.

Specific Time Period Databases

Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new window
Mass Observation Online, offers an unparalled insight into everyday life in the 1930s and 1940s. This publication opens up a host of essay and project possibilities on topics such as abortion, old age, crime, eating habits, shopping, fashion, dance, popular music, sex, sport, reading, ethnic minorities, and the decline of Empire.
Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974 This link opens in a new window
The Sixties is a full text resource consisting of diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary.
London Low Life This link opens in a new window
London Low Life is a full-text searchable resource, containing colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London.In addition to the digital documents, London Low Life contains a wealth of secondary resources, including a chronology, interactive maps, essays, online galleries and links to other useful websites.
Popular Culture in Britain and America: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest This link opens in a new window
Rock and Roll explores the dynamic period of social, political and cultural change between 1950 and 1975. The resource offers thousands of colour images of manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and memorabilia from this exciting period in our recent history. It includes an interactive chronology, visual resources, video footage, and more.
Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
Brings together rare journals printed between 1685 and 1825, illuminating all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Many are ephemeral, lasting only for a handful of issues, others run for several years. Topics covered include: colonial life; provincial and rural affairs; the French and American revolutions; reviews of literature and fashion throughout Europe; political debates; and London coffee house gossip and discussion.
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index This link opens in a new window
Index to journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages. More than 500 journals are indexed.
History Vault This link opens in a new window
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This resource consists of three collections which can be cross-searched, these collections are: -Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records -Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 -Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975
Latino American Experience This link opens in a new window
The Latino American Experience is a digital resource focusing on the history and culture of Latinos in the United States. Its chronological coverage spans the pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations of the Americas, the Spanish colonial period and the nineteenth century, up to the present day. Content includes articles and essays, reference materials, excerpts from primary sources, and a tool for simple analyses of statistical data.
Sabin Americana This link opens in a new window
Provides over 14,000 primary source titles based on Joseph Sabin's bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana. Materials describe every aspect of life in the Western Hemisphere from 1500 to the 1890s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. Searchable in a variety of ways, including: author, title, year of publication, and subject.

Witchcraft in Europe and America
Witchcraft in Europe and America is a comprehensive collection offering a wide range of writings on the subject of witchcraft. The earliest texts in this comprehensive collection on witchcraft date from the 15th century and the latest are from the early 20th century. The majority of the material concerns the 16th to 18th centuries, the so-called "classic period." In addition to these classic texts, the collection includes anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposés of persecutions, and philosophical writings and transcripts of trials and exorcisms.
Feminism in Cuba 1898-1958
Provides access to historic documents. This collection, compiled from Cuban sources, spans the period from Cuban independence to the end of the Batista regime. The collection sheds light on Cuban feminism, women in politics, literature by Cuban women, and the legal status of Cuban women.
Feminism in Cuba nineteenth through twentieth century archival documents.
This collection, compiled from Cuban sources, spans the period from Cuban independence to the end of the Batista regime. The collection sheds light on Cuban feminism, women in politics, literature by Cuban women and the legal status of Cuban women.
Victorian Popular Culture
Victorian Popular Culture is an essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The resource is divided into four self-contained sections: Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic.

Reference Titles

American decades by Tompkins, Vincent
Call Number: E169.12 .A419 1994
ISBN: 0810357224
Online edition also avail. Summary: Examines the changes in American civilization from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. The 13 thematic chapters cover "World Events," "The Arts," "Business and the Economy," "Education," "Fashion," "Science and Technology," and other broad subject areas.
American eras by Kross, Jessica
Call Number: E169.1 .A471979 1997
ISBN: 0787614785
Notes: Contents: [1] Early American civilizations and exploration to 1600 [2] The colonial era, 1600-1754 [3] The Revolutionary era, 1754-1783 [4] Development of a nation, 1783-1815 [5] The reform era and eastern U.S. development, 1815-1850 [6] Westward expansion, 1800-1860 [7] Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877 [8] Development of the industrial United States, 1878-1899
The Wiley-Blackwell Dictionary of Modern European History Since 1789 by Atkin, Nicholas James
Call Number: D299 .A84 2011 Non-circulating
ISBN: 9781405189224
"The Wiley-Blackwell Dictionary of Modern European History Since 1789 is an authoritative and highly accessible reference to the major people, events, and issues that have shaped Europe's development from the time of the French Revolution to the opening of the 21st century."