English
It should be noted that many of the sites listed here, that contain material related to English Literature, are located in the USA. This is largely due to the fact that the USA is some way ahead of the UK in terms of using the Internet, coupled with a lingering reluctance in some quarters in UK to making material generally available. The UK has still not really developed a tradition of e-learning, and even where it has, in some Universities, it is still not coupled with the open attitude that already prevails in the USA and elsewhere – that will change rapidly.
English Literature on the Web
A web link site maintained at the University of Nagoya in Japan. It logs sites devoted to British authors, literary magazines, it offers e-text archive links to major archive sites and sub sets devoted to Anglo Saxon Literature, Renaissance, Restoration, Romantics, Victorian and 20th century writers. It also carries a small set of links on American authors. A number of the logged sites contain text as well as literary criticism.
Bibliomania.
This site contains 2000 classic English texts on line – free. It also holds text notes and commentaries, author biographies, book summaries and references. There is access to study guides and extensive teacher notes on major authors. There is a registration system but it is free.
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
The text of the document is both searchable and viewable on line. It is, in its text form, an 18 volume document. The best way to search the site is via the ‘Index to chapters’, which allows direct access to individual chapters such as “Changes in the language to the days of Chaucer” and “Nineteenth Century Drama”. The site also has links to the Bartelby Library, an e-text archive, which contains canonical works in English searchable by author, subject or title. It holds on line the Palgrave ‘Golden Treasury’, The Oxford Book of English Verse [1919 edition, etc.
Classic Literature
Part of the ‘About’ group, the site has a sub set called ‘British Literature’ which offers definitions, information about authors, eras and genre, along with quotations, complete works etc. It can be searched by author or period, and carries extensive critical analysis and comment. It is a commercial site, so do not be surprised to see pop-ups occur [when this research is being done, it is advertising the US Army enlistment programme heavily…].
English Literature Resources
The site is managed by the London School of Journalism and gives access to e-text in downloadable form, general interest sites, literary theory, and history of the language. In addition it allows access to a number of other English Literature link sites, such as Oxford University Faculty of English. It also carries a number of essays on aspects of English Literature, as background reading to text analysis, such as ‘The love poetry of John Donne’.
Voice of the Shuttle
A rather bizarre name for a site. It is a humanities resource site, maintained by one man at the University of California, Santa Barbera campus. It is very large and its best commendation is that it is one of the most widely quoted and linked. However the problem with a site that is managed in this way is that links may occasionally be dead! Nonetheless it contains considerable amounts of e-text on line as well as carrying many articles on Literary Theory that will assist teachers at A level. A number of standard texts of Literary Theory [American style] are available on line though this site, including, for example, the John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Some registration is needed from time to time, but the site is free.
American and English Literature Internet Resources
The Buley Library site is maintained at South Connecticut State University. It is a resource for students, and is well organised for easy access. It holds a large Shakespeare list, including a Complete Works of Shakespeare site in Australia, which is searchable by scene, and backed up by detailed commentary.
Introduction to Mr William Shakespeare and the Internet
A large site covering all aspects of Shakespeare’s life and times. It features a ‘Timeline’ facility to locate plays in relation to his life and career, supported by documentary evidence. It also carries a large section devoted to ‘Shakespeare in education’, which includes links to sites designed to ‘teach’ Shakespeare. While the context is essentially Transatlantic, there is much useful information here, even down to lesson notes and study questions used in some schools in the USA.
Shakespeare Resource Centre
The site covers the following – the ‘man’ and his works, play synopses of all 38 works in the canon, the inevitable authorship debate, details and brief history of the Globe Theatre and Elizabethan England, a guide to the Bard’s use of English, including a searchable glossary and an extensive reading list and other active links. An interesting oddity also is present – Shakespeare’s last Will & Testament, including the ‘struck out’ passages.
All Shakespeare
This site is a part of the ‘enotes.com’ series. It describes itself, modestly, as the ultimate guide to the works of Shakespeare, containing ‘everything you need to understand, study for, or write a paper about any of Shakespeare’s works’ [sic]. It is however widely quoted on the Net. It includes notes to the plays [15 at present] as well as the Sonnets, under a number of headings – introduction, summary, FAQ index, character analysis, critical discussion and themes, selected relevant essays, selected quotations and bibliography. Some parts of the site are password protected at a very modest cost [$5.95 for 90 days], but in return there are no annoying commercial banners to clutter the site.
UCL – English and American Literature
A site residing at the University of Connecticut. Strong on Old English and Medieval Literature, including a number of Chaucer links, such as a useful modernised text version of the Canterbury Tales.
The Chaucer Pedagogy Page
The site is based at the University of Alaska. It seeks to be ‘everything you ever wanted to know about Chaucer’. It is well laid out and easy to search. It is designed as an easy approach to Chaucer and contains, tellingly, guidance on how to avoid plagiarism… It contains a massive amount of information about Chaucer and his works, including lecture notes on the Tales from various people in the USA, which are certainly useful in creating lessons at A level.
The Chaucer Nook
This is essentially an introductory site to the works of Chaucer. It is a privately managed web-site and, thus, subject to how much time is allocated to its maintenance. Often these are managed by teachers and rewarding to view. It contains notes to support the General Prologue and four of the Tales [thus far…]. It contains a useful section of notes for teachers, [although probably aimed at US lecturers], including comment on the language and associated essays, which include text of a series of lectures on Chaucer delivered in Dublin in 1994, entitled ‘Teaching Chaucer in the 1990s’.
The Word Zone: Secondary Teaching
A site maintained by Leicester LEA as a part of its local grid operation. It is well planned and advises on how to use on line services for the teaching of A level English among other subjects – it quotes some of the web pages already logged in this site.
Andrew Moore’s resource site.
A personal site that contains a large amount of tutorial material on A level English. It is worth surfing for ideas, but it is a personally maintained site and that should be borne in mind in assessing its usefulness. Entries may sometimes have a strongly personal issues agenda, such as race or gender. Nonetheless it is a sign of the times and the teacher is to be commended for initiative. These sites are sometimes unstable in that they are not on line consistently.