Research Guide for Stephen Greenblatt's English 90fh: Hamlets
Please Note: This page was created in a previous
semester. It may be useful to those who are interested in seeing the work
we have done in the past. Some links may no longer be active, and the Library
will not be updating them. If you wish to visit a site with an inactive link,
please consider using a search engine or contacting
a reference librarian for assistance.
This guide is designed to offer resources in support of your research
and library use for this course. We
have identified a wide array of readings and other library resources for
you. Please do ask us for further help in developing your research.
Libraries You May Be Using for this Course
There are over 90 libraries at Harvard University; the full list is available at Harvard Libraries Listed Alphabetically By Name. For this class, you should be aware of the following libraries and special collections, since they have many of the materials you'll need to do your research:
Widener Library: the largest research library at Harvard with collections focused on humanities and social sciences
Fine Arts Library: collections covering all Western and non-Western art and architecture, from antiquity to the present
Houghton Library: a special collections library within the College, with archival material, literary and historical manuscripts, and rare books
Lamont Library: the general undergraduate library within the College with Morse Music & Media for recordings and DVDs of Shakespearean tragedies
The Harvard College Library (HCL) consists of even more libraries and programs; they are listed at the Harvard College Library site. For library locations, please consult this Harvard University Library Map/Guide. For library hours, please visit the Library Hours page of the Harvard Libraries site.
Reference Works and Databases for Context
Consult any of these works for background, context, definitions of terms, biographical information, or to begin to explore a topic.
ARTStor: approximately 300,000 images covering art, architecture and archeology.
Biographical essay on Shakespeare from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Edition
Early English Books Online (EEBO): 125,000 early English books covering a broad range of subjects such as literature, history, music, art, linguistics, and religion.
The Hutchinson Chronology of World History. Oxford : Helicon, 1999.
Widener Loker Reading Room, RR 3616.25.10 for in-library useJohns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism: a fully-searchable alphabetically arranged survey of literary criticism and theory.
Literature Online (LION): a collection of over 349,000 works of poetry, drama, and prose with complementary reference and critical resources; for this course, use it for searchable texts of the works of Shakespeare, full-text criticism, definitions of terms, and to explore other works influenced by Shakespeare.
Oxford English Dictionary: an historical dictionary of English, covering the language from the earliest times to the present day.
Oxford Reference Online: History: a general reference for historical subjects.
Oxford Reference Online: Literature: a general reference for literary subjects.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "dynamic reference work" written and maintained by the entire philosophy profession.
Concise Bibliography on Shakespearean Tragedy and Sources
Shakespearean Tragedy
Alfar, Cristina León, Fantasies of female evil: the dynamics of gender and power in Shakespearean tragedy. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2002.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .A48 2003xArmstrong, Philip, Shakespeare’s visual regime: tragedy, psychoanalysis, and the gaze. Houndmills, Hampshire; New York : Palgrave, 2000.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .A75 2000Bell, Millicent, Shakespeare’s tragic skepticism. New Haven: Yale University Press, c2002.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .B45 2002Berry, Philippa, Shakespeare’s feminine endings: figuring women in the tragedies. London; New York: Routledge, 1999.
Child Memorial ChM 1510.280.15
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .B47 1999Berry, Ralph, Tragic instance: the sequence of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Newark: University of Delaware Press, c1999.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .B48 1999Booth, Stephen, King Lear, Macbeth, indefinition, and tragedy. New Haven: Yale University Press, c1983.
Theatre Collection TS 676.9
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .B6 1983Bradley, A. C. (Andrew Cecil), A.C. Bradley on Shakespeare’s tragedies: a concise edition and reassessment. [edited by] John Russell Brown. Basingstoke [England]; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Widener Harvard Depository PR2983 .B68 2007Bradley, A. C. (Andrew Cecil), Shakespearean tragedy: lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, introduction to the fourth edition by Robert Shaughnessy. 4th ed. Basingstoke [England]; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .B7 2007Brown, John Russell, Shakespeare: the tragedies. Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave, c2001.
Lamont PR2983 .B76 2001
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .B76 2001The Cambridge companion to Shakespearean tragedy / edited by Claire McEachern. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Lamont PR2983 .C28 2002
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .C28 2002Cavell, Stanley, Disowning knowledge in seven plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Lamont PR2983 .C38 2003x
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .C38 2003xCunningham, James, Shakespeare’s tragedies and modern critical theory. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, c1997.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .C86 1997Dillon, Janette, The Cambridge introduction to Shakespeare’s tragedies. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .D55 2007Dollimore, Jonathan, Radical tragedy: religion, ideology, and power in the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. 3rd ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke; New York; Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Widener WID-LC PR658.T7 D6 2004bxEdwards, Michael, Shakespeare et l’œuvre de la tragédie. Paris : Belin, 2005.
Harvard Depository PR2983 .E493 2005Fernie, Ewan, Shame in Shakespeare. London ; New York : Routledge, 2002.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .F47 2002Greenblatt, Stephen, Hamlet in purgatory. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2001.
Child Memorial ChM1043.1.10
Lamont PR2807 .G69 2001
Quad Library PR2807 .G69 2001
Widener WID-LC PR2807 .G69 2001Greenblatt, Stephen, Shakespearean negotiations: the circulation of social energy in Renaissance England. Oxford: Clarendon; New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Widener WID-LC PR2976 .G737 1990xHamlet, edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia : Chelsea House, c2004.
Widener WID-LC PR2807 .H26237 2004Hamlin, William M., Tragedy and scepticism in Shakespeare’s England. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Widener WID-LC PR658.T7 H35 2005Hawley, William M., Shakespearean tragedy and the common law: the art of punishment. New York: P. Lang, c1998.
Law School PR2983 .H39 1998
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .H39 1998Honigmann, E. A. J., Myriad-minded Shakespeare: essays on the tragedies, problem comedies, and Shakespeare the man. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Widener Harvard Depository PR2983 .H627 1998 [Consult Circ. Desk for HNICYU]Honigmann, E. A. J., Shakespeare: seven tragedies revisited: the dramatist’s manipulation of response. 2nd ed., rev. and expanded. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York : Palgrave, 2002.
Widener Harvard Depository PR2983 .H628 2002Hopkins, Lisa, Shakespeare on the edge: border-crossing in the tragedies and the Henriad. Aldershot, Hampshire, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate Pub., 2005.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .H645 2005Knight, George Wilson, The wheel of fire: interpretations of Shakespearian tragedy, with an introduction by T.S. Eliot. London; New York: Routledge, 2001.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .K6 2001Leggatt, Alexander, Shakespeare’s tragedies: violation and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .L385 2005Marsh, Nicholas, Shakespeare, the tragedies. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Lamont PR2983 .M344 1998
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .M344 1998O’Toole, Fintan, Shakespeare is hard, but so is life: a radical guide to Shakespearean tragedy. Rev. ed. London; New York: Granta, 2002.
Widener Harvard DepositoryPye, Christopher, The vanishing: Shakespeare, the subject, and early modern culture. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000.
Child Memorial ChM 1510.274.5
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .P94 2000Reid, Robert Lanier, Shakespeare’s tragic form: spirit in the wheel. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, c2000.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .R39 2000Sadowski, Piotr, Dynamism of character in Shakespeare’s mature tragedies. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, c2003
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .S23 2003Shakespeare’s tragedies / edited by Susan Zimmerman. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Lamont PR2983 .S4495 1998
Quad Library PR2983 .S4495 1998
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .S4495 1998Zilberfain, Ava, Stealing the story: Shakespeare’s self-conscious use of the mimetic tradition in the tragedies. New York: Continuum, 2007.
Widener WID-LC PR2997.I46 Z56 2007Zimmerman, Susan, The early modern corpse and Shakespeare’s theatre. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, c2005.
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .Z56 2005xSources for Shakespearean Tragedy
Booth, Stephen, The book called Holinshed’s Chronicles; an account of its inception, purpose, contributors, contents, publication, revision, and influence on William Shakespeare. With a leaf from the 1587 edition. [San Francisco] Book Club of California, 1968.
Houghton Accessions *72S-494 FCorum, Richard, Understanding Hamlet: a student casebook to issues, sources, and historical documents. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Widener WID-LC PR2807 .C67 1998Gillespie, Stuart, Shakespeare’s books: a dictionary of Shakespeare sources. London: Athlone, 2001.
Widener WID-LC PR2952 .G55 2001xGreen, David C. Plutarch revisited: a study of Shakespeare’s last Roman tragedies and their source. Salzburg : Institut für anglistik und amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1979.
Widener WID-LC PR2955.P6 G7Guttman, Selma, The foreign sources of Shakespeare’s works; an annotated bibliography of the commentary written on this subject between 1904 and 1940, together with lists of certain translations available to Shakespeare. New York, King’s Crown Press, 1947.
Widener 12484.75Lynch, Stephen J., Shakespearean intertextuality: studies in selected sources and plays. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Widener Harvard Depository PR2952 .L96 1998McRoberts, J. Paul, Shakespeare and the medieval tradition: an annotated bibliography. New York: Garland, 1985.
Widener WID-LC PR2953.M54 Z995 x, 1985Milward, Peter. Biblical influences in Shakespeare’s great tragedies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1987.
Andover-Harv. Theol PR2983 .M45 1987
Widener WID-LC PR2983 .M45 1987Shakespeare: life, language, and linguistics, textual studies, and the canon: an annotated bibliography of Shakespeare studies, 1623-2000 / Michael Warren, editor. Fairview, NC: Pegasus Press, 2002.
Widener Harvard Depository PR2894.Z99 S54 2003xA Shakespeare reader: sources and criticism / edited by Richard Danson Brown and David Johnson. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2000.
Widener WID-LC PR2976 .S3382 2000
Working with Literary Sources
Searching HOLLIS for literary sources
- Go to the Citation
Linker and plug in as much information as you can about the journal
and / or article, then click the
button
that's in the Citation Linker window. - If Harvard does own the journal in electronic format, clicking the button
will take you to a message telling you where to locate the electronic
article (and a link that takes you there).
- If you get only the link message, “Check holdings in HOLLIS Catalog,” click that link to find out which Harvard libraries own the journal in print. Click the Holdings link in the library’s location line to see the specific years and volumes owned by that library, and to get the call number for the journal.
- Widener uses 2 different classification systems to organize books
and journals: the Library of Congress system, and the Old Widener
system (because Widener pre-dates the Library of Congress). The rule
of thumb is: if you see WID-LC at the beginning of
the call number, that’s a Library of Congress classification number
and you consult the top portion of the Widener Call Number Locations
Chart. If there’s no WID-LC at the beginning of the
call number, look at the lower, Old Widener System part of the chart.
Here’s the Widener Call Number Locations Chart (.pdf, 49k)
The Locations Chart gives you the Stack level and sector (East or West); this diagram illustrates the layout of the Stacks.
- Journals are kept in 2 main places in Widener: Current Issues of journals are kept in the Periodicals Reading Room Stacks on the 1st floor (opposite the Circulation Desk area), while older issues are bound into volumes (that look remarkably like large books) and shelved right along with the books in the stacks, in call number order. What’s a current issue? It can be the last month, the last year, or the last 2 year’s worth of a journal – find out exactly where the issue you’re looking for is by clicking the Holdings link in a HOLLIS record.
- Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper: From Duke University Libraries, this site tells you how to cite most formats you're likely to use in your research (articles, books, e-journals, web sites, primary sources, online newspapers, etc.).
- Chicago Manual of Style: searchable online version of the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.
- How to Cite Electronic Sources: From the Library of Congress, guidelines on how to construct citations for electronic sources.
- Using Endnote at Harvard: Endnote is a computer program that can help you create footnotes and bibliographies for your research papers.
- Using RefWorks at Harvard: RefWorks is a Web-based program that allows you to collect citations and format them into footnotes and bibliographies for your research assignments.
- Writing
with Internet Sources: From the Expository Writing Program
in collaboration with Harvard librarians. Provides instructions
and advice on how to cite sources properly.
The online HOLLIS catalog can lead you to useful sources. Follow these tips to find materials for this course: Editions of Shakespeare's works and works about the bard and his texts are heavily represented in the libraries. (HOLLIS can only sort 1,000 records at a time and even that number is more than you'd want to explore for this course.) Given this, the challenge isn't to find sources, it is to find the right sources without scrolling through thousands of records.
Tip: It's a good idea to use Expanded Search, so that you can *limit* the results and so that you find the kind of material that will be useful for your work.
1. To search for records that identify and discuss sources drawn upon by literary works
a. Go to the Expanded Search form, and select "Subject words," then enter search terms for work of literature in one of the search boxes. (For example: Hamlet)
b. Then, at the next search box, select "Subject words" and type "sources" as your search term, then do the search.
2. To search for critical works on particular plays, characters, authors, or texts:
a. Go to the Expanded Search form, select "Subject words," and enter search terms for your author, play, or character in the search box.
b. Then select "Subject words" in the next search box and enter "Criticism"
c. You may also want to limit the language of the results. To do this, select English from the drop down list on the lower left side of the screen.
There are many subject headings you can use in searching HOLLIS to find materials for your research in this class; Keyword searches will lead you to finding Subject Headings you can use for more focused searching in HOLLIS.
The following is a suggested "starting" list to give you an idea of the subjects available in HOLLIS. Click on these to find related materials, and then do more subject searches using the subject headings you find in the books listed here:
Journal Articles
To find scholarly journal articles, you'll need to consult journal indexes
and databases. Below is a list of some journal indexes and databases
likely to be useful for this class. If you find a citation for an
article that you want to read but the full text isn't available in the
database when you click the button,
find the article in print or online by following the instructions at Finding
Journal Articles Online (Citation Linker),
below.
Academic Search Premier: a database that offers information about nearly every subject, and includes full-text for many articles from 1990 to the present.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO): digital images of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century, with full-text searching.
GenderWatch (1974-): a full-text database of unique and diverse publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
Google Scholar: not just Google — this is full of scholarly articles using Google's search system, with the bonus that if you enter via this link Google recognizes you as a Harvard searcher... so you get full-text for free, rather than paying for it.
Historical Abstracts: a reference guide to the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life).
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (1975-): indexes books, book chapters, and journal articles on the history of science.
JSTOR: searchable full images of journal articles spanning many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences.
LexisNexis Academic: provides access to thousands of newspapers, newsletters, magazines, trade journals, wire services, and broadcast transcriptions.
Literature Online (LION): a collection of over 349,000 works of poetry, drama, and prose with complementary reference and critical resources.
MasterFILE Premier: provides full text for approximately 2,000 periodicals covering a broad range of disciplines.
MLA International Bibliography: indexes articles in language, linguistics, and folklore, and includes coverage from 1963 to the present.
Philosopher's Index: the major indexing source for scholarly research in philosophy.
Project Muse: the full text of over 200 scholarly journals published by university presses in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
PsycINFO: indexes the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines (psychiatry, education, linguistics, neurosciences, etc.).
Readers Guide Retrospective (1890-1982): indexes popular and general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada.
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online: includes entries for the important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other materials related to Shakespeare and published or produced from 1965 to 2004.
Finding Journal Articles Online (Citation Linker)
Locate the journal either online or in a library, then find
the article you want. If you were able to follow a link using
the button, you
will already have the full-text or the call number for a print journal.
If you are working from a printed bibliography or your professor suggested
an article for you to read, use Citation
Linker to find the full-text online or to get the call number from
HOLLIS.
For example, if you have this article citation and want to get hold of the article itself...
Teague, Francis “Fantasies of Female Evil: The Dynamics of Gender and Power in Shakespearean Tragedy,” The Modern Language Review, Volume 100, Number 2, 1 April 2005 , pp. 484-485(2)
...you first need to locate the journal, then get the particular article.
Here's how you find it:
Finding Journal Articles in Print
If you need to find printed journal articles, much of what you'll be looking for will be in Widener. Widener Library can be easy to use if you know this information:
There are photocopiers in the Circulation Desk room, the Current Periodicals Reading Room, and throughout the stacks in Widener. If you use Crimson Cash copying is cheaper than using cash. There is a Crimson Cash "value transfer station" (the way to add $$$ to your Crimson Cash card/ID) next to the Information Desk in the Circulation Desk room on the first floor.
For similar information about the other libraries at Harvard, please consult the List of Harvard Libraries.
Citing Sources
As you do your research, create the bibliography of the works you consult as you go along -- it will save time later, as the paper comes due, and more importantly, it will help prevent you from inadvertently committing plagiarism. These web pages can help you decide when to cite and how to cite sources in various formats (electronic, print, etc.):
Not Finding What You Need? E-mail us.
If you don't find the research material you need by
using the resources available here,
please let us know — we can
help you find more.
Laura Farwell Blake, Research Librarian and liaison to the Department of English, Widener Library.
Cheryl LaGuardia, Research Librarian and liaison to the Freshman Seminar Program, Widener Library.
Page Last Reviewed: June 10, 2008