Research by Subject: THEA 240: Directing: Resources for Scholarly Sources

Databases

WorldCat Library Catalog
Search for books, articles, and more that are held by Bucknell and beyond.
Performing Arts Database
The Performing Arts Database offers access to citations, abstracts, and full text of articles from scholarly and professional journals, magazines, newspapers, and other publications. Subjects covered include dance, film, drama, opera, stagecraft, comedy, pantomime, puppetry, magic and television.
PsycINFO
Covers the academic research and practice literature in all areas of psychology. Be sure to use the limits on the right side of your search results screen to narrow your results. PsycInfo indexes journal articles, dissertations, book chapters, books, technical reports, and other documents in dozens of languages.
ARTstor
This searchable repository of over 1.6 million high quality digital images offers tools for viewing, sharing, and saving visual materials. Although its strengths are visual art and architecture, Artstor includes images that are useful in both the humanities and the sciences.
MLA International Bibliography
MLA is the primary research database for literary studies. It indexes books, journal articles, and other materials from 1963 to the present concerning literature, folklore, linguistics, modern languages, and the dramatic arts.
Literature Criticism Online
Literature Criticism Online brings together 10 of the most acclaimed literary series representing a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres. Plus, it matches the familiar look and feel of the print originals. Databases included: Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, Drama Criticism, Children's Literature Review
JSTOR
An archive of core, scholarly journals from a variety of subject areas. Coverage begins with the very first issue through all but recent years.

Using & Evaluating Scholarly Sources

For this type of assignment, the way you think about and employ scholarly sources might be different than how you might have used them in the past to write a research paper. But they will still be providing important insights, ideas, and work that can provide you with deeper insight into the play you are researching.

When was the article written and how far removed is it chronologically from when the play was written or at the height of its popularity
Is this source delving into the play or the ideas around/influencing the play? Is it thinking about the play as a production, a piece of literature, a cultural artifact, etc. ?
What field does the author come from/what type of academic expertise do they have and how is that going to influence how they research and write about or around the play?
What is the author's thesis?
What textual, experiential, cultural, or other forms of evidence do they use to support their thesis?
What is your context or needs? Is this article useful or just interesting?