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Augustine and Culture Seminar

I have been looking for scholarly resources to use for a paper I have to write for ACS (due Wednesday, April 4) on the Canterbury Tales on the topic of my choice.  I had been searching the library website in order to find possible topics, but I have been having trouble finding articles on specific topics.  Specifically, I was thinking about writing about gender roles or the criticism of the Church.  After using the live chat feature on the website to speak with a librarian, I was told to contact you for additional help.  Do you have any advice or recommendations for finding useful articles on this topic or other topics?

Answer

  1. Answer by: Poley, Darren G.

    You will need to evaluate the articles you do find for yourself, but I would begin by searching ProQuest Central. http://library.villanova.edu/research/databases/#P

     

    In the basic search, check “full-text”/”peer-reviewed”/”scholarly journals” and  type in the search box:

    "canterbury tales" AND (chaucer OR "literary criticism") AND gender

    This will give you 426 articles

     

    If you  check “full-text”/”peer-reviewed”/”scholarly journals” and  type in the search box:

    "canterbury tales" AND (chaucer OR "literary criticism") AND church

    It will give you 477 articles

     

    If you want to reduce either of these search results you can click on the “Search within” link, and then enter an additional term that you think appropriate to further refine your topic.

     

    Or you can click on “Advanced search” at the top, enter a specific date range (2006-2012 for example) and indicate Document type “Article” and Language “English,” and then click “Search” again.

     

    This will give you  48 “full-text”/”peer-reviewed”/”scholarly journal” articles for:

    "canterbury tales" AND (chaucer OR "literary criticism") AND church

     

    This will give you  72 “full-text”/”peer-reviewed”/”scholarly journal” articles for:

    "canterbury tales" AND (chaucer OR "literary criticism") AND church

     

    Another database worth looking into is JSTOR. http://library.villanova.edu/research/databases/#J

     

    Go to the advanced search.

     

    Enter: "canterbury tales" AND church

    Check: “Include only content I can access”

    Item type: Article

    Date range: From 2006 To 2012

    Language: English

    Narrow by discipline by checking: Language and literature

    Then click search.

    Should give you 53 articles.

     

    Enter: "canterbury tales" AND gender

    Check: “Include only content I can access”

    Item type: Article

    Date range: From 2006 To 2012

    Language: English

    Narrow by discipline by checking: Language and literature

    Then click search.

    Should give you 43 articles.

     

    In both cases the search results may overlap, but between these two databases this should give you ample material to work with.

     

    Don’t forget to evaluate your search results and read the articles.

     

    Need more help or have a question email me.
 
Last Modified: Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012