Literary Criticism
What is Literary Criticism?
Discipline concerned with philosophical, descriptive, and evaluative inquiries about literature, including what literature is, what it does, and what it is worth (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, 2006).
Literary Criticism vs. Book Reviews
Book Reviews--evaluative overview of a book generally intended for a more general audience.
Literary Criticism--usually more in-depth critique of a work or aspect of a work that is most often intended for only an academic audience.
Getting Started
How to write a literary analysis paper.
Finding Literary Criticism in Books
The best to way to find literary criticism in books is to search the database called IDS Search. Type the author's name and criticism and interpretation in the search screen. 
Once you find a good book, clickable Subject headings on the screen can lead you to other sources or help you brainstorm other search terms.
Searching MLA Bibliography for Literary Criticism Articles
Search authors as a subject to eliminate works written by the author instead of about them.
Limit to peer-reviewed (or at least scholarly) articles to find those most desirable for work at the college level. (Peer-review explained: Some journals require articles to be reviewed by other professionals in a particular field before they can be published. These are considered the cream of the crop in scholarly articles.)
