English 75.5: Renaissance Drama & Places of Performance

English 75.5:
Renaissance Drama: Places of Performance

Fall 2001

Library Catalogs

Start your research in the online catalogs (one database for the four colleges, another for UMass/Amherst). You can search in the library catalogs by authors' names, by subjects, by titles, or by keywords. In the catalog you can quickly find books and journals you already know about. For a book, if you know the author's name, go right for AUTHOR. Official library subjects constitute their own special vocabulary, and to do an effective SUBJECT search you must choose the exact word or phrase libraries have selected to describe your topic. For example, libraries list most books about English history under ÏGreat BritainÓ Ò no matter whether they cover a period before England was part of Great Britain. (Take a look at ÏGreat Britain Ò court and courtiers Ò historyÓ, for example.) But ÏEnglandÓ appears in subject headings such as ÏEngland - Social Life And Customs - 16th CenturyÓ or ÏTheaters ÒEngland Ò HistoryÓ. If subject headings get too confusing, try out KEYWORD searching. You can select formal subjects from books you like and, with one click, move into a subject search. Pay attention to sub-headings. And, for this course especially, be imaginative in looking for relevant books; you never know where you're going to find them.
The online catalog shows you books and titles of journals. It does not immediately give you the full list of articles in journals. Look at the Library's new Articles page for advice about finding articles in journals.

Geography, Mythology, Biblical Allusions

There are many books in Reference and throughout the Library which will help sort out countries, cities, castles, mountains rivers, and more. In the library catalog, look for books which include illustrations or subjects end with ÏmapsÓ. Keep your historical period in mind and be aware of names as they were, not necessarily as they are now. Watch for references to places from classical mythology, folklore, and the Bible.

Britannica Online
Historical Atlas of Britain (Ref xG 1812.21 S1 H57 1981)
The Times London History Atlas (Ref xG 1819 L5 T5 1991)
Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries (Ref xxG 1036 N4 1990)
Atlas of Medieval Europe (Ref G 1791 M2)
Columbia Gazetteer (Ref G 103.5 C65 1998)
Oxford Classical Dictionary (Ref DE 5 O9 1996)
Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (Ref BS 440 I63)

Dictionaries

You will probably find several kinds of words which give you trouble in this course: archaic words and usage; specialized words for buildings, architectural features, and materials; contemporary literary and cultural studies terms. Some puzzling vocabulary can be solved by:

OED Online or the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary (Ref xPE1625 .O87 1989)
Shakespeare Glossary (Ref PR 2892 O6 1986)
Oxford Companion to the Theatre (Ref PN 2035 O9 1983)
Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms (Ref N 33 L75 1984)
A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory (Ref PN 44.5 H37 2000)

Historical and Cultural Background

Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (Ref CB 361 E52 1999)
Historical Dictionary of the Elizabeth World: Britain, Ireland, Europe, and America (Ref DA 357 W34 1999)
Historical Dictionary of Stuart England, 1603-1689 (Ref DA 375 H57 1996)
Lives of the Tudor Age (Ref DA 317 H65)
Chronology of World History Vol. II: 1492-1775 (Ref D 11 M39 1999)
GroveArt or Dictionary of Art (Ref/ N31 .D5 1996)
GroveMusic or New Grove dictionary of music and musicians (Music Library Ref ML 100 N48 2001)

Critical Studies of Literature and the Theater

Remember that the online catalog is often the best way to locate further readings. But bibliographies in Reference can give you basic recommendations of older material which you can supplement. A few selections for older and up-to-date publications Ò ask at the Reference Desk for help finding more:

English Renaissance Theatre History: a Reference Guide (Ref Z 2014 D7 S78 1982)
English Drama (excluding Shakespeare): Select Bibliographical Guides (Ref Z 2014 D7 E44)
The Essential Shakespeare: an Annotated Bibliography of Major Modern Studies (Ref Z 8811 C53 1986)
Shakespeare Index: an Annotated Bibliographies on the Plays, 1959-1983 (Ref/Z 8811 S25 1992)
Annals of English Drama, 975-1700, plus supplements. (Ref/Z 2014 D7 H25 1964)
MLA (Modern Language Association) International Bibliography
Expanded Academic ASAP

The Web and Websites

Search the World-Wide Web with imagination and a skeptical attitude. On the Web you often encounter more enthusiasts than scholars. Online literary texts are often out-of-date editions. Still, web- searching can be interesting for a course like this one -- especially when you're looking for graphic representations of places which are significant tourist attractions.
First, rather serious sites -- with more recommendations under English from the Library's Online Resources by Academic Department:
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
Voice of the Shuttle: Renaissance English Literature
Try for the more unpredictable sites through Google, the librarians' current favorite for search engines. You'll find sites like:
Castles on the Web

Citing Sources

Be sure to credit the sources you use for a research project -- whether printed books and journals or online texts, websites, etc. The Bibliography Styles Handbook: MLA Format from the Writers Workshop at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tells you how to cite all kinds of sources in a form acceptable to courses in humanities.

Do you have questions about research in this course? Contact Margaret Adams Groesbeck (magroesbeck)

Amherst College Library

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