English Research Guide

Search strategies for locating literary criticism (in articles, books, or book chapters):

Focus on the characteristics of the criticism rather than the name of the theory:

• In the case of Hamlet and feminist criticism, try the following search:
  • Gertrude OR Ophelia OR women OR gender
  • AND "Hamlet"
• When looking for treatments of race or ethnicity (use * to cut off the root word and retrieve words with all suffixes):
  • rac* OR ethnic* Or Black OR African-American
  • AND "Invisible Man" OR Ellison
• Criticism in the style of a particular theorist:
  • Lacan*
  • AND "To the Lighthouse"
• Brainstorm the characteristics of the theory or perspective with which you are working:
  • Ecocriticism: environment, climate, etc.
  • Queer theory: gender, sexuality, LGBT*, etc.
  • Psychoanalysis: Freud, Lacan, etc.

Search strategies for locating materials on the peoples, countries, and cultures of  Latin America, Hispanoamerica, Latinx, Spanish speaking countries, etc.:

Hispanic OR Hispanoameric* OR  "Latin American" OR Latinx

Sample search for Latin American literature or culture in OneSearch

Using "Spanish speaking" will retrieve a lot of information on working with Spanish speakers in various industries, like healthcare or education, but it rarely reflects "Spanish speaking countries" in the databases we use for our research. If you are looking specifically at Spanish speaking countries, it is more productive to search for a group of the individual countries:

List of Latin American and Carribean Countries