Research Guides: VIC191Y: Artistic Creation & Public Issues: Literature: Encyclopedias & Handbooks

General Reference Sources

American National Biography Online
An extensive, continually updated biographical encyclopedia published by the Oxford University Press. It includes detailed entries on all writers, poets, and other artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.

Oxford Reference
An online library of reference books (such as encyclopedias an handbooks) published by the Oxford University Press. It contains helpful entries, accompanied by bibliographies, on the persons, places, and topics connected to the Harlem Renaissance.

Oxford Bibliographies: American Literature
Expertly selected and annotated lists of books, scholarly journal articles, and other sources, which are compiled by subject specialists and published online by the Oxford University Press. The bibliographies are associated with the names of specific poets and authors.

Artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance are listed under Late 19th Century–End of WWII (however, Jessie Fauset is erroneously classified under the early nineteenth century).

Twayne’s Authors Series
An online collection of books with biographies, literary criticism, interpretation, and critical importance of specific works and authors.

Reference Sources on Specific Topics

The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature by Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor
Contains essays highlighting the artistry, complexity and diversity of a literary tradition that ranges from Lucy Terry to Toni Morrison. A wide range of topics are addressed, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement, and from the performing arts to popular fiction.
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers by Yolanda Williams Page
African American women writers published extensively during the Harlem Renaissance and have been extraordinarily prolific since the 1970s. This book includes alphabetically arranged entries on novelists, poets, playwrights, short fiction writers, autobiographers, essayists, and influential scholars. It covers established contemporary authors such as Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor, along with a range of neglected and emerging figures.
Writing African American Women by Elizabeth Ann Beaulieu
The first work of its kind, this encyclopedia approaches African American literature from a women's studies perspective. It includes entries on African American women writers, as well as on male writers who have treated women in their works. Articles on genres, periods, themes, characters, historical events, texts, places, and other topics are provided as well. Each entry relates its subject to the overall experience of women in African American literature.
Black Women in America by Darlene Clark Hine
An extensive biographical encyclopedia that includes detailed articles on the women writers (and other artists) associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance by Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman
A comprehensive compilation of helpful information on all aspects of this creative period in African American culture and history.
The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance by George Hutchinson
With chapters by a wide range of well-known scholars, this companion is an authoritative and engaging guide to the Harlem Renaissance. It first discusses the historical contexts of the movement, both national and international. In addition, this book presents original discussions of a wide array of authors and texts, analyzes the creative and ideological the disagreements and differences that energized the movement, and examines the legacy of the movement in later years.
The Harlem Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction by Cheryl A. Wall
Examines the zeitgeist of the Harlem Renaissance by identifying issues and strategies that engaged writers, musicians, and visual artists alike. She introduces key figures such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer, along with many important texts. In examining the “New Negro," the author examines the writing of Nella Larsen and how she explored the dilemmas of gender identity for “New Negro” women.

The Handbook of African American Literature by Hazel Arnett Ervin
A compilation of various literary terms, movements, periods, and cultural sources. Terms that are defined in the handbook include genres, themes, forms, well-known phrases, modes of discourse, theoretical concepts, and diction from music and linguistics. Eight full-length essays, which serve as introductions to important aspects of literary theory and criticism, cover major terms: ambiguity, memory, signification, repetition, collective unconscious, representation, influence, and literary history.
The Cambridge History of African American Literature by Maryemma Graham and Jerry W. Ward
Several chapters examine W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Criteria of Negro Art.” This critical anthology provides a comprehensive overview of the literary traditions (oral and print) of African-descended peoples in the United States. The contributor emphasize the dual nature of each text discussed as a work of art created by an individual and as a response to unfolding events in American cultural, political, and social history.
A Companion to African American Literature by Gene Andrew Jarrett
Through a series of essays that explore the forms, themes, genres, historical contexts, major authors, and latest critical approaches, this companion offers a comprehensive chronological overview of African American literature from the eighteenth century to the modern day.