Annotated Web links, academically oriented and other, on the subject of literature. Covers primarily though not exclusively English-language literature, from Beowulf through Shakespeare, to Jane Austen and contemporary authors.

WWW resource guides

Literary Resources on the Net: Comes close to being an inclusive source of pointers to scholarly literary information on the web. Emphasis is on English and American literature. This site is limited to collections of information useful to academics. It is searchable by word or category. Developed by Jack Lynch, Dept. of English, Rutgers University.

Literature section of the Argus Clearinghouse contains guides to American Literature, Children's Literature, Australian Literature, English Literature, Theater, Writing (term papers, poetry, etc...), Books and Book Reviews and many others. The Argus Clearinghouse was established by University of Michigan librarians in 1993 as the Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides, and it is presently maintained by Argus Associates. Each site on the over 1,000 guides is rated according to set criteria, and each broad subject section can be searched using your own words.

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Texts

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Contains text of all of Shakespeare's plays and links to other Shakespeare web sites. Searchable.

The Electronic Beowulf Project is part of The British Library's Digital Library. This site contains scanned images of the early 11th century manuscript, along with 18th century transcripts, 19th century collations, and related materials and resources.

The EServer is a cooperative which since 1990 has been distributing online a variety of humanities materials, including research, criticism, novels, hypertext, and miscellaneous writings from humanities disciplines. Presently it offers over eighteen thousand works, covering a wide range of interests and varied formats including Canonical poetry, Drama, and Fiction. The site can be searched by topic.

Index of and links to electronic books: Can be searched by author and by title, as well as browsed by Library of Congress subject classification categories. Compiler: John Mark Ockerbloom, Library, University of Pennsylvania.

Jane Austen Information Page: Six complete hyper-text enriched novels with links to characters, chronologies, themes and places; juvenalia, biographical information, letters, essays, bibliographies, pictures; links to other Austen pages. Developed by Henry Churchyard, U.Texas.

Project Gutenberg: This archive of electronic versions of non-copyrighted literature and reference works was initiated in 1971 and is still being added to. It aims to have 10,000 books converted by the year 2001. Among the first titles were the Bible and Shakespeare.

Victorian Women Writers Transcriptions of literary works by British women writers of the 19th century. This site also includes a large collection of related links. Compiler: John Mark Ockerbloom, Library, University of Pennsylvania.

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Biography

A Celebration of Women Writers: The Celebration provides a comprehensive listing of links to biographical and bibliographical information about women writers, and complete published books written by women. Lists of authors, some with links to further resources and some without, can be browsed by name, by country, or by century. Developed by Mary Mark, Carnegie-Mellon U.(Library Journal 4-1-96)

John Keats, 1795-1821: A collection of articles about Keats from Portico - The British Library's Online Information Server.

Shakespeare Illustrated This site from Emory University explores nineteenth-century paintings, criticism and productions of Shakespeare's plays and their influences on one another.

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Magazines

Early Modern Literary Studies: Articles in EMLS examine English literature, literary culture, and language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. EMLS has come out three times a year since 1995 all issues are in full text on this site. Articles are not searchable. There are also links to other web sites on this subject. (Refereed journal, Sheffield Hallam University.)

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Reference

Academy of American Poets: The site, poets.org, includes an index of poets, poetry discussion groups and literary links. The Academy sponsors National Poetry Month (April). The site is searchable.

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Censorship & Banned Books

From Publishers Weekly, Sept. 23, 1996, p. 12:
"While efforts to ban individual books decreased slightly in the U.S. [in the 1995/96 school year], right-wing political and religious attacks on curricula and libraries have risen sharply, according to an annual report called `Attacks on the Freedom to Learn', compiled by Washington, D.C.-based organization People for the American Way. ... Overall, 475 actions were recorded in 44 states last year. Attempts to censor books fell by 11% from 1994-1995, yet there were still 300 incidents. Broad challenges to the freedom to read, however, rose 46%; and, the report notes, a third of the incidents directly or indirectly involved the religious right.
"The book challenged most often was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, which reflects a three-year trend of a disproportionate number of attacks on books by African American women; such classics as Of Mice and Men and The Catcher in the Rye also appear on the list of most frequently challenged books. ...

"Banned Books Week is co-sponsored [each year] by the ABA [American Booksellers Association], the American Library Association, the American Society of Journals and Authors and the National Association of College Stores. For more information, visit Bookweb, the ABA Web site."

Banned Books! The On-Line Books Page features this "exhibit of books that have been the objects of censorship or censorship attempts." The site describes banned books controversies over the years, and lists titles. Links are provided to all mentioned titles, as well as to related sites.

The Most Frequently Banned Books in the 1990s. From Herbert Foerstel's Banned in the USA.

Peacefire "was created in August 1996 to represent students' and minors' interests in the debate over freedom of speech on the Internet", through its main focus on blocking software like CYBERsitter and Cyber Patrol. Contains many links such as to the Communications Decency Act and to related censorship materials and controversies. The section called "CYBERsitter: Where Do We Not Want You To Go Today?" contains a number of examples of sites banned by CYBERsitter, and "Cyber Patrol Examined" provides comparable information for Cyber Patrol.

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