Advanced Contemporary Literature: ENG 3524

This guide will help you with the stages of your assignments and papers for Dorothy Stringer's course, Advanced Contemporary Literature.

Use the tabs to help you find sources about 20th and 21st century authors and the commentary surrounding them. If you need help, contact the librarian.

Researching contemporary works of literature presents interesting challenges as there may not be a lot of scholarly books or journal articles focused entirely on the work and/or author. So, what should a researcher do? Below are a few suggestions in no particular order...

1. Look for book reviews of the work in reputable news sources and/or literary magazines written by book critics or other contemporary authors who provide an initial reaction to the work.
2. Look for interviews with the author in reputable news sources, literary magazines, or across podcasts where the author discusses their works and/or their writing style/technique/influences. Also, look for any biographies about the author and consider whether the biographer is qualified to write on this individual.
3. Determine if the author is active on social media and review the posts they share.
4. Look for scholarly books and scholarly journal articles related to the broader literary genre and/or themes found within the work (e.g. bildungsroman, flash fiction, etc.). These scholarly sources may not explicitly talk about your work, but they may help you make connections between texts and inform your overall analysis.