LibGuides: English III: Huckleberry Finn Research: Databases

Using Databases for Research

Use the suggested databases on this page to find literary criticism and articles about aspects of the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

**To access databases off-campus, use the login and password provided to you in class, or email the librarian.

Keywords

Research the following ideas in the databases to expand your understanding of the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

"Huckleberry Finn"

"Sir Walter Scott"

publication

dialect* OR "vernacular writing"

race

racism

illustrations

advertising

censorship

"Tom Sawyer"

"slave narrative"

"slave songs"

"blackface minstrels"

Gale Literature Resource Center

Literature Resource Center
This database focuses on articles that analyze literature. Do a WORKS SEARCH for the novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to pull up all the literary criticism related to the novel. From these results, find the box on the right that says SEARCH WITHIN RESULTS and enter a term related to your topic to find articles that are relevant to your presentation.

U.S. History in Context

U.S. History in Context
Although this database focuses on American history, do a search on "HUCKLEBERRY FINN" and look under REFERENCE to access articles that address a variety of topics, including dialects, race, censorship, etc. related to the novel.

Biography in Context

Biography in Context
This database contains biographical information and is a good place to learn more about Sir Walter Scott, Harriet Jacobs, Olaudah Equiano, and other figures relevant to "Huck Finn" research.

JSTOR

JSTOR
This database contains scholarly articles on a variety of topics. Make sure that you put AND between keywords (eg. "Huckleberry Finn" AND "slave narrative") to get more precise results.

American History Through Literature 1870-1920

American History Through Literature 1870-1920
This is an ebook version of a Reference book. This set presents literature not as a simple inventory of authors or titles but rather as a historical and cultural field viewed from a wide array of contemporary perspectives. The set, which is "new historicist" in its approach to literary criticism, endorses the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself informs history.

Keyword Searching

Make a short list of keywords you will use to search for information from the databases. Use the following terms in combination with your keywords to improve your research results:

Use quotation marks around keywords that are phrases
- "huckleberry finn"
AND combines two keywords to narrow search results
- "huckleberry finn" AND controversy
OR combines two similar concepts to broaden search results. Separate phrase with PARENTHESES
- (racism OR race)
NOT excludes records containing the second keyword
- drones NOT bees
Use truncation (*) to expand a keyword search to anything with the word stem
- rac* --> race, racism, racists