Literary Criticism & African American Drama

Book Reviews

If you want to find book reviews, there are two very useful sources that are good starting points:

Book Review Digest. New York: Wilson, 1905-.
Reference Center Z1219.B6
Book Review Index. Detroit: Gale, 1965-.
Reference Center Z1035.A1B62

In addition, USCInfo can be used to find book reviews in journals indexed in the following list of databases. These will be the most useful databases for African American drama:

Current Contents, 1992-
Expanded Academic Index, 1987-
Magazine Index, 1983-
Newspaper Index, 1981-

Literary Criticism

For literary criticism the number of sources is somewhat limited. The most important sources of critical studies are:

MLA International Bibliography. (CD-ROM)
Reference Center: This extremely valuable source began its coverage in this format in 1981.; Earlier coverage, back to 1922, is provided in printed volumes.
Essay and General Literature Index. 1900-.
Reference Center AI3.E752: Includes many essays of a critical nature.
Davis, Thadious, and Trudier Harris. Afro-American Writers After 1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers [Vol. 38 of Dictionary of Literary Biography]. Detroit: Gale, 1985.
Reference Center PS221.D5 v.38: Thirty-five writers, with personal and critical comment.
Draper, James. Black Literature Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Most Significant Works of Black Authors Over the Past 200 Years. 3 vols. Detroit: Gale, 1992.
Leavey; Reference Center PS153.N5B556