Research Guides: Shakespeare Studies: Finding Articles

Database Search Tips

Database Searching Tips:

Here are some great tips for better search results in databases. This usage works in most databases, but check the "Help" sections for supported search syntax.

Boolean: (using operators: AND, OR, NOT)

Hamlet AND revenge searches for occurrences of both words within scope defined.

Hamlet OR "Titus Andronicus" searches for one or all, but both are not required.

revenge NOT Hamlet searches for occurrences of the word ‘revenge’ without use of the word ‘Hamlet.’

("Titus Andronicus" NOT Hamlet) AND revenge searches for occurrences of the phrase ‘Titus Andronicus’ without use of the word ‘Hamlet,’ then also requires the word ‘revenge.’

Phrase:

"All's Well That Ends Well" - using quotation marks around a title or proper name will search for the words as a phrase rather than as individual words.

Truncation:

art* searches for art, arts, artistic, artful, etc.

Wildcard:

m?n searches for man and men.

General and Literature related databases

ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Central is a large, multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. It serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels in all markets. Over 160 subjects areas are covered extensively in this product including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to journal articles, users can access book chapters, ebooks, and primary source documents.
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.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
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Provides full-text access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to dictionaries, language reference, Islamic studies and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Searchable full text is also available for a subset of the collection.
Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Drama Online contains full texts and full-length filmed performances of plays ranging from Aeschylus to the present day, with supplementary material including first night program texts, critical analyses, and images from the Victoria and Albert Museum's archive of production photos. Includes the Core Collection, Critical Studies and Performance Practice, Nick Hern Books Modern Plays, National Theatre Collection, RSC Live Collection, and Aurora Metro Books, among others.
Theatre in Context Collection This link opens in a new window
O’Dell’s Annals of the New York Stage, the Oxford University Press Companion series, and Greenwood’s American Theatre Companies series are just a few of the many in-copyright sources included in the Theatre in Context Collection. Placed alongside thousands of playbills, posters, photographs, and related theatrical ephemera, users will be able to paint a more comprehensive picture of the life and evolution of dramatic works.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Performing Arts Periodicals Database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 210 international journals in the performing arts dating from 1864 to the near present.
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)
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.
Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window
Literature Criticism Online includes the contents of several multidisciplinary series, including Contemporary Literary Criticism and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. The collection includes biographical essays and selected literary criticism for authors from the classical period to the present day.
MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB) This link opens in a new window
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The MLA International Bibliography provides bibliographic records for books, book chapters, journal articles, and dissertations published in the fields of modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Full text is available for some articles. The MLAIB covers items published from around 1920 to the present.

Shakespeare specific databases

BBC Shakespeare Plays This link opens in a new window
The BBC Shakespeare Plays features full-length performances of the complete corpus of William Shakespeare's plays, produced by the British Broadcasting Company for television between 1978 and 1985.
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare This link opens in a new window
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare contains searchable full text of eleven major editions of Shakespeare's works from the First Folio of 1623 to the Cambridge edition of 1863–66, plus contemporary printings of individual plays and poems, selected apocrypha and related works. The collection also includes adaptations, sequels, and burlesques from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
Shakespeare's Globe Archive This link opens in a new window
This collection of documents offers insights into the performance practice in the particular space of the reconstructed Globe Theatre. It details the way in which the theatre was constructed as a place of radical experiment. It documents performances through prompt books, wardrobe notes, programs, publicity material, annual reports, show reports, photographs and architectural plans.
Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library This link opens in a new window
Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library, showcases rare and unique prompt books from the Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theaters throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online This link opens in a new window
The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online provides annotated entries for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare and published or produced from 1960 to the present. The scope is international, with coverage representing every country in North America, South America, and Europe and nearly every country in Asia, Africa, and Australasia.

Shakespeare Journals

The best way to stay current with the new research in the field of Shakespearean scholarship is to browse the available journals. Not only will you be able to stay up-to-date on the latest research, but it may stimulate your own thinking! In addition to Shakespeare Quarterly, there are a number of Shakespeare and drama oriented journals available.

The following is just a select list of Shakespeare journals:

Shakespeare Quarterly
Founded in 1950 by the Shakespeare Association of America, Shakespeare Quarterly is a refereed journal committed to publishing articles in the vanguard of Shakespeare studies. The Quarterly, produced by Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University, features notes that bring to light new information on Shakespeare and his age, issue and exchange sections for the latest ideas and controversies, theater reviews of significant Shakespeare productions, and book reviews to keep its readers current with Shakespeare criticism and scholarship.
Shakespeare Jahrbuch
The Shakespeare Jahrbuch is one of the leading publications in the field of international Shakespeare studies; but it is not only addressed to specialists. It offers contributions in German and English, scholarly articles, an extensive section of book reviews, and reports on Shakespeare productions in the German-speaking world. It also documents the activities of the Shakespeare-Gesellschaft.
The Hare
The Hare is an online, peer-reviewed journal, publishing untimely reviews of books, articles, and performances in early modern theater. This journal provides a venue for the reevaluation and revivification of old scholarly work in contemporary scholarly debate. The Hare invites contributions focusing on a wide range of early modern theater, including but not limited to Shakespeare’s plays. We are excited to publish untimely reviews by scholars inspired to reassess old work and performances in order to open up new possibilities for scholarship, alongside theater artists with a vision for the future of early modern performance.
Shakespeare Survey
Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies, and of the year's major British performances.
Shakespeare Studies
Shakespeare Studies is a peer-reviewed volume published annually featuring the work of performance scholars, literary critics and cultural historians across the globe. The journal focuses attention primarily on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, but embraces theoretical and historical studies of socio-political, intellectual and artistic contexts that extend well beyond the early modern English theatrical milieu in both space and time. In addition to articles, Shakespeare Studies offers unique opportunities for extended intellectual exchange through its thematically-focused forums, and includes substantial reviews of significant publications.
Shakespeare: Journal of the British Shakespeare Association
Shakespeare publishes articles drawn from the best international research on the most recent developments in Shakespearean criticism, historical and textual scholarship, and performance. The journal promotes the goal of the British Shakespeare Association to bridge the gap between literary and performance based criticism of Shakespeare, and provides an outlet for Shakespeare research undertaken to the very highest standards from around the world. Without privileging any particular critical approaches, methodologies, or theories, the journal welcomes all contributions that throw light upon Shakespeare, his works, and his world, in his time and through to the present day.