Finding Themes in Novels, Plays, Poetry, and Short Stories
A Carolina Day School Library Resource Guide
Novels:
Thematic guide to the American Novel. Ref 813.009 Ada 2002 (CDS Reference book)
Check the table of contents for your theme (there are fifty listed), then turn to the essay which discusses the theme in three commonly taught American novels and lists other novels that also contain the theme. Don't miss Appendix A which lists fifteen additional themes and novels. Appendix B lists the 150 novels discussed in the essays along with secondary themes.
Fiction Catalog. REF 016.808 Fic 2001 (CDS Library reference book)
lists novels by subject in its Subject Index toward the back of the book.
Novels for Students. REF 809 TEL (CDS Library reference set)
has a Subject/Theme index in each volume. Beware: the index only covers the novels analyzed in that particular volume!
Critical Survey of Long Fiction. REF 809.3 Cri 2000 (CDS Library reference set)
One of the indexes in the last volume is by subject. Organized by author, the set discusses authors’ selected novels. The last volume also contains long essays about various forms and types of the novel.
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500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide. REF
Check the Table of Contents for the list of 21 themes (such as "Power" or "Growing Old").
Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High. REF 011.62 Boo 1997 (CDS Library reference)
Contains short descriptions of works published from 1994-1996 in general categories, such as Romance or Family Relationships. Two of the categories are Short Stories and Poetry and Drama. The real value for this assignment is the detailed subject index in the back.
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NoveList. (Online database at NCLive.org)
Database available at www.nclive.org (you must have a public library card and call the reference desk for the password to nclive, which changes several times a year).
Choose Start, then "Describe a Plot," check "Adult," and type in your topic or subject.
You can also choose a particular book and ask NoveList to give you a list of books similar to your book.
What Do I Read Next? (Online database, NCLive.org)
Database available at www.nclive.org (you must have a public library card and call the reference desk for the password to nclive, which changes several times a year).
Choose the Who? What? Where? When? search option. Check Adults (and/or Young Adults) and Fiction at the top of the screen. Then scroll down to the What? option for a pull-down list of topics. If your topic is here, paste it in and click on the Search button.
Hennepin County Library: http://catalog.hclib.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=elibrary
The Hennepin County Library is famous for the completeness of their cataloguing (most libraries and cataloguing services do not assign subjects to fiction). Search the catalogue by using the keyword option. For novels about vampires, for example, type vampire fiction in the ANYWHERE box (when I last searched, the catalogue returned over 200 titles). Political corruption fiction returned over 60 titles.
Be flexible with your search terms: scientific research fiction returns just a few items, but science research fiction returns many more.
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Chadwyck-Healey Literature Collections.
Available from the NC Live databases (www.nclive.org). Several databases there have full texts of Early American Fiction (1789-1875), Early English Prose Fiction (1500-1700), Eighteenth-Century Fiction (1700-1780), and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (1782-1903). Great for finding those older, often difficult to find works. To get there, once you log into NC Live, choose Browse Resources - Alphabetic.
Click on any Chadwyck-Healey database to take you to their home page. You will then have the above databases (among others) to choose from.
Plays:
Thematic Guide to Modern Drama. REF 809.2 Abb 2003 (CDS reference book)
Check the index for one of the thirty-three themes listed (such as "Growing Up," "Death," "Work," "Sibling Relationships," etc. Each theme has an essay in which three plays dealing with the theme are discussed in detail, followed by a list of other related works.
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Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High
Please see the description in the Novels section above.
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The Play Index. (UNC-A Library reference book)
Indexes plays by subject (among other things) from 1949. Available at UNCA (call number PN1600.5.B1 P53). A short summary of the play is under the author entry.
Dramatists Play Service. http://www.dramatists.com
You can search this play publisher’s catalog by keyword (it will return only plays published by Dramatists, though!). Choose The Playfinder, then type your topic in the keyword space (note that other limiters are available).
Chadwyck-Healey Literature Collections.
Available from the NC Live databases (www.nclive.org). Several databases there have full texts of American Drama (1714-1915) and English Drama (1280-1915). Great for finding those older, often difficult to find works. You can't search by subject, but once you've found an author or a title of a work, try it here. To get there, once you log into NC Live, choose Browse Resources - Alphabetic.
Click on any Chadwyck-Healey database to take you to their home page. You will then have the above databases (among others) to choose from.
Poetry:
Thematic Guide to American Poetry. REF 811 Bur 2002 (CDS Library reference book)
21 essays on various themes and how the theme is treated in individual poems (86 poets are represented).
Table of contents: -- Introduction -- Art and Beauty -- Civilization -- Family Relations -- Freedom and Slavery -- The Individual and Society -- Innocence and Experience -- Life and Death -- Loss -- Love and Sex -- Memory -- Nature -- Obligations and Choices -- Poetry -- The Self -- Skepticism and Belief -- Suffering and Joy - Thought and Perception -- Time and Change -- Tradition and Heritage -- Truth and Appearance -- War -- Appendix: Biographical Sketches -- Bibliography -- Index
Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High
Please see the description in the Novels section above.
Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry. REF 808.81 FRA (CDS Library reference book)
The last index in the book is a subject index. Under each subject is a list of authors and the poems they have written about that subject.
Poetry for Students. REF 808.1 POE (CDS Library reference set)
has a Subject/Theme index in each volume. Beware: the index only covers the poetry analyzed in that particular volume!
Chadwyck-Healey Literature Collections.
Available from the NC Live databases (www.nclive.org). Several databases there have full texts of poems you may not find easily available elsewhere. Databases include: The Faber Poetry Library (20th century), American Poetry (1600-1900), English Poetry (600-1900), English Poetry, Second Edition (8th century to 21st century), African-American Poetry (1600-1915), 20th Century African-American Poetry, 20th Century American Poetry, 20th Century English Poetry, and Canadian Poetry (17th-early 20th centuries). You can't search by subject, but once you've found an author or a title of a work, try it here. To get there, once you log into NC Live, choose Browse Resources - Alphabetic. Click on any Chadwyck-Healey database to take you to their home page. You will then have the above databases (among others) to choose from.
Essays:
Opposing Viewpoints Database. One of the library's subscription databases. Ask for the username and password. Many current social issues are listed on the front page. You can try other searches by keyword. Other library databases may also be helpful, such as The Student Resource Center.
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CDS Library Catalog. You can find books of essays on the CDS catalog. Just typing in essays as a keyword brings up almost 500 entries. Sort these by clicking on Call Number at the top left of the screen. You’ll then have the list sorted pretty much by topic. You can also combine your topic with the word essay to really narrow the field.
There may be entire books of essays about your topic.
You might also just try your topic as a keyword search on the catalogue, sort by call number, and see what turns up!
Essay and General Literature Index. (UNC-A Library reference book)
Available at UNCA (call number: REFERENCE PN6010.5.B1 E87). Indexes essays in books and other sources from 1900. The essays are not in the index! You must then see if the library owns the book or periodical in which the essay appeared.
Short Stories:
Critical Survey of Short Fiction. REF 809.3 Cri (CDS Library reference set)
One of the indexes in the last volume is by subject. Organized by author, the set discusses authors’ selected short stories. The last volume also contains long essays about various forms and types of the short story.
Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High.
Please see the description in the Novels section above.
Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story. REF 813 FAC 2000 (CDS Library reference book)
Appendix II (page 512) is "Suggested Readings by Theme and Topic." You may then look up the author or short story (not all short stories have their own entries, though) in the main part of the book for more information.
Short Story Index. (UNC-A Library reference book)
UNCA has the index from 1900-1978 (REFERENCE PN3311.B1 S561 1900/78). The index does not contain the short stories, but only tells you which books and periodicals contain the stories.
rev. ks 3-04
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