Annotated Bibliograpy
For Both Turns of the Century
Literary Resources--American: Jack Lynch put together a colossal list of links that would help anyone researching American Literature, and it was very beneficial indeed. There were links to different literary movements or to collections of photographs from the Library of Congress. Using the links on this website was much more focused and precise than using Google was. The only problem was that a few of the links were outdated and the site it linked to was not available anymore.
Books-The New York Times: The New York Times book section was convenient because it could reference articles, especially book reviews, dating back to the 1860's. I was able to find primary source book reviews for the documents page, and I could see the different reactions that people had to certain books. Although not a major problem, some of the articles from the 1900's were difficult to read, but that is to be expected of 100-year-old fonts.
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American Masters: The American Novel on PBS: The website contains a timeline of classic books and the literary movements that prevailed at certain times. There were also links to top novels, authors, and literary movements, where they were described in greater detail. A wonderful part about the timeline was that there were important events in American history listed beneath the novels so you could see the effect that the events had on the novels of that time.
Encyclopedia of World Biography: This website has biographical information about notable people, and it played a fair part in the construction of the biographies of authors. A plus about the website is that all the information is in one place instead of having to jump around from website to website. A drawback to the site is that there are no links to other sites, which makes it more difficult to corroborate facts.
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F0r the Turn of the 20th Century
American Literature: Donna Campbell's American Literature website was extremely helpful in numerous ways. It contained sections on specific American authors, a timeline of American literature up to the 1920's, and a list of literary movements, all of which were helpful to my website. The timeline was especially loaded with information, and which helped me make my own. The only issues with the site are that it only links to biographies of the authors instead of providing its own and that the literary movements were listed in alphabetical order instead of chronological order. Other than that, it is a very reliable website with many sources.
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Crossroads: Hypertexts: On this website, there is a list of mainly American authors that have proved themselves to be important, and those authors have links to their greatest works. These links actually lead to an online version of the book, chapter by chapter, which is helpful if one wants to look at the style of the writer or to look for famous quotes from those books. The only problem is that the list did not include more modern authors from the late-twentieth century on.
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Dr. DoCarmo's Notes on Realism and Naturalism: This website is notes on realism and naturalism, most likely for a college class, but it is full of relevant information about realism and naturalism, two of the major styles of writing around the turn of the 20th century. The site does a superb job in explaining the difference between the two styles, which are fairly similar, and it also details the cultural ramifications of the style, which one usually does not find in simple explanations of the styles. Sadly, the site lacks links to other websites with related topics.
For the Turn of the 21st Century
The Don DeLillo Society: The website helps to elucidate the significance of DeLillo's works and style to the world of literature, especially that of postmodernism. The website also includes a list of DeLillo's works and references criticism those works have gotten over the years. A downfall of the website is that it does not include much biographical information about DeLillo, whose life is quite difficult to find out about.
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J.K. Rowling Official Site: J.K. Rowling's own official website has her biography, works, and recent news in addition to a timeline of her life and books. The site was especially convenient when writing about J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. Sadly, the site does not have any of Rowling's quotes, which would have enhanced it all the more.
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U.S. Life: Outline of American Literature: This website is all about modern 21st century American literature, and it attests to the sheer diversity of literature today. The website focuses on an overview of American literature, then it gets into detail about some of the major literary styles: Postmodernism, Regionalism, and Global Voices. A setback is that the website contains almost too much information and not enough separation or photographs to break the writing up. The website addresses many of the important parts of modern literature, and it was very helpful indeed.