LibGuides: German: Background Information

Reference Sources

Reference sources provide foundational information on topics like important people, historical events, cultural theories, or religious doctrines. Use these sources to give yourself background information, develop the topic of a paper, make a list of important names or events related to your topic, understand the timeline of historical events, or discover the definition of unfamiliar terms.

The Cambridge History of German Literature by Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly (Editor)
Call Number: PT91 .C36 1997
Publication Date: 1997
This book describes German literary history up to the unification of Germany in 1990. Contributors, all leading scholars in their field, take a fresh look at the main authors and movements, and also ask what Germans in a given period were actually reading and writing, what they would have seen at the local theatre or found in the local lending library; it includes, for example, discussions of literature in Latin as well as in German, eighteenth-century letters and popular novels, Nazi literature and radio plays, and modern Swiss and Austrian literature. A prominence is given to writing by women.
Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People, and Culture, 1871-1990 by Dieter K. Buse (Editor); Juergen C. Doerr (Editor); Thomas Spira (Editor)
Call Number: [Ref] DD14 .M64 1998 v.1-2
Publication Date: 1998

Salem Literature This link opens in a new window
Salem Literature is a searchable database providing full-text access to literary analysis and overviews of the lives and works of important writers.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Contains the texts of more than 250 reference titles published by Oxford University Press from all subject areas.
Credo Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Online reference library providing access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, literature, music, religion, science, and technology.