Library Databases
Search one or more of the Library Databases below for criticism of the novels you are studying.
- Gale Literature This link opens in a new windowA great starting point. Full of of criticism, work overviews, and author biographies.
- Humanities Source This link opens in a new windowA large collection of criticism and book reviews from scholarly sources.
Work Overviews
Read an overview to give you context and to get an ideas for themes/topics to explore.
- Overview: The Handmaid's TaleLiterature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Vol. 5: Civil Rights Movements to Future Times (1960-2000). Detroit: Gale, 1997. From Literature Resource Center.
- Historical Context: The Handmaid's TaleNovels for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1998. From Literature Resource Center.
- Overview: Ender's GameCharacters in Young Adult Literature. John T Gillespie and Corinne J. Naden. Detroit: Gale, 1997. From Literature Resource Center.
- Orson Scott CardContemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 279. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center
- Overview: Parable of the SowerPlot and character summaries from Novels for Students
- Critical Essay on "Parable of the Sower"From Novels for Students, Vol. 21
- Contemporary Speculative Fiction in North AmericaFrom Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 327
Examples of Criticism to Get You Started
The resources below are meant to get you thinking about the assigned novels. Search Library Databases for more criticism related to your topic of choice.
- Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' and the Dystopian TraditionsAmin Malak. Canadian Literature.112 (Spring 1987): p9-16. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. From Literature Resource Center.
- "We lived in the blank white spaces": rewriting the paradigm of denial in Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale.' (Margaret Atwood)Danita J. Dodson. Utopian Studies. 8.2 (Spring 1997): p66. From Literature Resource Center.
Ender's Game and Philosophy by Call Number: ebrary
Publication Date: 2013This collection of original essays probes key philosophical questions raised in the narrative, including the ethics of child soldiers, politics on the internet, and the morality of war and genocide.
- Liars and Cheats: Crossing the Lines of Childhood, Adulthood, and Morality in Ender’s GameSara K. Day. English Studies in Canada. Sep-Dec2012, Vol. 38 Issue 3/4, p207-225. 19p.
- Ender's Beginning: Battling the Military in Orson Scott Card's Ender's GameTim Blackmore. Extrapolation 32.2 (Summer 1991): p124-142. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Tom Burns. Vol. 116. Detroit: Gale, 2006. From Literature Resource Center.
- Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower: One Alternative to a Futureless FutureGant-Britton, Lisbeth. Novels for Students, edited by Ira Mark Milne and Timothy Sisler, vol. 21, Gale, 2005.
Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler by Call Number: Ebook Central
Publication Date: 2014Butler's fiction transforms the way the body is imagined with reference to race and gender. This text examines how Butler's fiction is able to cross several genre boundaries while simultaneously reshaping the genre of science fiction. This book makes the claim that Butler's fiction is crucial for contemporary and future investigations of identity formation. Discussions of race, class, and sex are reoccurring topic that are inextricable to any understanding of body politics and theory.
- The relationship between community and subjectivity in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the SowerAgusti, Clara Escoda. Extrapolation, vol. 46, no. 3, 2005
Search for Secondary Sources
- Gale Literature This link opens in a new windowResearch authors and their works, literary movements and genres. Search across Gale's Literature databases to find full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism, reviews, biographical information and overviews. Includes content from Gale's Literature Resource Center, Twayne's Authors, LitFinder, and Gale Virtual Reference Library.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowContent largely derives from the social sciences and humanities with more than 2,000 academic journals and over 20,000 books. JSTOR is an interdisciplinary archive of scholarly journals in both digital and print formats, generally from the first volume through issues published prior to the most recent three to five years.
- Humanities Source This link opens in a new windowThe collection includes full text for more than 1,400 journals, with citations to over 3.5 million articles, including book reviews. Provides full text—plus abstracts and bibliographic indexing—for scholarly sources in the humanities, including feature articles, interviews, obituaries, bibliographies, original works of fiction, drama and poetry, book reviews, and reviews of ballets, dance programs, motion pictures, musicals, operas, plays, radio and television programs.
- DiscoverDeWitt - Library Catalog This link opens in a new windowSearch by author to find books and ebooks.