English, American, and Comparative Literature

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Overview

Development of the Libraries' collections in English-language literature in recent years has consistently aimed at meeting the needs of library users. In this field these include the faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate majors in the English Department as well as individuals in programs such as Gender Studies, African American Studies, Irish Studies, the new Ph.D. in Literature, and others.

An important feature of literary collection development at the University Libraries of Notre Dame is the interdisciplinary nature of today's studies. Modern critical theories involve aspects of sociolinguistics, philosophy and psychology, social and intellectual history, art and aesthetics, music, feminism and gender studies, and other fields as well. Library materials budgets, however, are allocated by subject and tend not to be interdisciplinary; as a consequence literary scholars must depend considerably on acquisitions by other departments for many of their resources.

Another significant feature is the international nature of literary studies in English. This means that any Anglophone literature in addition to that of Britain and the U.S. may be the subject of study as well as translations of literature from other languages. This together with a strong creative writing program in the English Department requires the acquisition of hundreds of works of poetry and fiction every year. To date the acquisition of translations of creative literature have been very selective.

Another aspect of modern literary studies that has a serious impact on collection development is the ongoing revision of the literary canon. While the Libraries continue to support interest in traditional major writers, they also support the exploration of hitherto marginalized writers and genres. These include studies of women's writing of all periods, African American and American Indian writing, and genres such as autobiography, correspondence, and the captivity narrative. Hefty portions of literature funds in recent years have been devoted to both retrospective and current acquisitions in women's literature.

Because of these features collection development in English literature both benefits from and often supports other areas of the Libraries' collections. So for example the Libraries' acquisition of the massive microfilm collection, "The Eighteenth Century," extensively supports literary scholars of that period. Similarly some 75,000 volumes and 350 serials located in the Medieval Institute library support research in Old English and Middle English texts. Coordination with the Institute helped to fund the purchase of the magnificent facsimile of the Ellesmere Chaucer and the series "Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile." Acquisitions are also coordinated from time to time with subject librarians. For example, creative and critical literature in foreign languages is generally acquired through the Modern and Classical Languages funds. The subject librarians for African American Studies, Catholic Studies, Film/Television/& Theatre, and Gender Studies supply numerous recommendations for purchase in those areas and occasionally share the cost of expensive purchases. Costs have also been shared with Theology, Philosophy, History, and Medieval Studies.

New funding arising from the Irish Studies Program has expanded acquisitions in Irish literature. Acquisitions have included rare book collections such as the Todd Collection on Edmund Burke and the Luce Collection on George Berkeley. They have also included microfilm collections such as "Women, Education, and Literature: The papers of Maria Edgeworth, 1768-1849," "The Monthly Review, 1749-1801," and "The Papers of J. M. Synge."

More recently the program in medieval British studies has led to extensive retrospective purchasing relating to the British Isles and Scandinavia to complement the Medieval Institute's focus on the Continent. These acquisitions have included thousands of trade editions, hundreds of rare books, and contributions toward the purchase of electronic resources such as "LION: Literature Online" and "EEBO: Early English Books Online."

Electronic resources in literary studies have expanded rapidly in recent years. The Libraries' "Electronic Gateway" lists over fifty reference sources and eighty-five electronic journals in the field of English studies alone. The Libraries access three of the major indexes, "ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature," "ABES: Annotated Bibliography for English Studies," and "MLAIB: Modern Language Association International Bibliography." Full-text sources include "LION" and "EEBO" as mentioned above, among others. Another major reference source is "Literature Resource Center," a database providing biographies and critical citations for hundreds of authors past and present.

The University is over 150 years old, but until four decades ago it was primarily an undergraduate institution. The literary collections reflect that circumstance in several ways. The PR's and PS's are strong in primary resources (novels, poetry, collected works, correspondence, etc.) for authors that have traditionally been part of the "canon." Primary sources for minor or neglected authors have required considerable retrospective purchasing and this need continues to be a factor in collection development. Primary sources in recent years have been stronger across the board because they have been the object of systematic acquisition, although we are far from being comprehensive in acquiring the full range of output in creative literature.

Secondary sources (literary criticism, critical theory, biographies, etc.) also tend to be strong for the traditional canon. These sources also happen to be fairly strong for recent imprints, reflecting the establishment of a non-fiction English-language approval program since 1980. Secondary sources published before 1980 have not constituted a major object of retrospective purchasing, however, because users have tended to be more interested in recent critical approaches rather than historical criticism.

 

 

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