Subject Guides: English and Related Literature: Global and Post-Colonial Literature

Microfilms

Colonial discourses: series one: women, travel and empire, 1660-1914
The Empire writes back part 1: Indian views on Britain and Empire, 1810-1915
From the British Library, London.
The Muslim world
Including the Searight collection of drawings and prints, and material from the Drawings [i.e. Designs], Prints and Drawings Department and the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum].

pt. 1. Searight collection drawings (29 fiches)
pts. 2. Searight collection prints (97 i.e. 101 fiches)
pt. 3. Searight collection colour prints (10 fiches)
pt. 4. Prints and drawings in the Victoria & Albert Museum (14 fiches)
pt. 5. Traditional costume (9 fiches).
South African political materials: the Carter Karis colleciton, 1920-1965
Consists mainly of printed and mimeographed ephemera and primary material relating to the history of African political organizations, together with a large quantity of biographical notes on individual African leaders and activists.
Small collection of anti-apartheid material issued by various groups
S. Johns. S.A. Congress of Democrats, African Peoples Organisation, Communist League of S.A. and some early issues of Imvo Zabantsundu.

Journals

The following databases and websites can be used to find journal articles and theses.

Journals

Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics Alif is a refereed multilingual journal appearing annually in the spring. It presents scholarly articles in Arabic, English and occasionally French. Each issue is dedicated to a specific theme. Its multidisciplinary nature allows different traditions and languages to confront and complement each other in its pages.
Arabica Includes studies, documents and notes on the language, literature, history and civilization of the Arab world, with emphasis on multidisciplinary studies and contemporary problems concerning Arab societies.
Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters This publishes original works and critical studies of black artists and writers worldwide. It has a mixture of fiction, poetry, plays, crticial essays, interviews, and visual art from the African diaspora.
Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies Covers the histories and cultures of imperialism and colonialism; liberation struggles; the contemporary politics of identity; race and ethnicity; gender and sexuality; indigenous fourth-world cultures; the connections between colonialism and modernity, postcolonialism and postmodernism.
Journal of Arabic Literature The journal publishes literary, critical and historical studies, as well as review and bibliographies, on a broad range of Arabic materials – classical and modern, written and oral, poetry and prose, literary and colloquial. It is aimed at readers in comparative literature and literary theory and method, in addition to specialists in Arabic and Middle Eastern literatures and Middle East studies generally.
Journal of Commonwealth Literature Brings together the latest critical comment on all aspects of Commonwealth and postcolonial literature and related areas, such as postcolonial theory, translation studies and colonial discourse.
Journal of South Asian Literature Brings together translations of important and influential writers in various South Asian languages.
Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies Articles, essays, and creative works centring on contemporary postcolonial literature and theory.
Postcolonial Studies Explores the various facets—textual, figural, spatial, historical, political and economic—of the colonial encounter, and the ways in which this encounter shaped the West and non-West alike.
Postcolonial Text Forum for the critical discussion of postcolonial literature, culture, history, and theory. Also publishes postcolonial poetry and fiction. Helps disseminate otherwise difficult-to-access literary texts among a larger, truly international, audience.
Race and Class: A Journal on Racism, Empire and Globalisation Covers racism and imperialism in the world today.
Research in African Literatures Central scholarly forum for discussion of modern African literature, oral traditions and folklore, poetry, and literary criticism.
Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism Focuses on the renewal of practices of intellectual criticism. It recognizes a tradition of social, political, and cultural criticism in and about regional/disasporic Caribbean
Studia Islamica One of the oldest journal is the field of Islamic Studies, it publishes articles (in English and French) in the fields of history, religion, law, literature and language, for both the pre-modern and modern periods.
Transition A clearing house for the freshest, most compelling, most curious ideas about race and an international review of politics, culture, and ethnicity from Beijng to Bujumbura.

Theses

Digital Islam Theses
A special project from JISC has made freely available over 900 full texts U.K PhD theses covering Islamic studies. These can be traced and downloaded from the ETHOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) by entering the keywords JISC Digital Islam. Topics covered are broad ranging including the economics, politics, history and culture of Islam and Islamic nations from earliest times to the present day. Most materials date from 1999 onwards. Free registration required before downloading.

Databases

The following databases and websites can be used to find primary sources, secondary sources and journal articles.

African American Poetry (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A database of nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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African Writers Series (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This online edition of Heinemann's African Writers Series gives access to the full text of over 250 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose from some of the most important and significant writers in modern African literature.

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American Song (Alexander Street) [accessible until 31st January 2025] This link opens in a new window
American history explored through music with songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Topics covered include Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and anti-war protests, with a wide range of genres represented including country, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, shape note singing, doo-wop, Motown, R&B, soul, and funk.

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Early European Books Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The University has access to Collections 1 to 4 and the Wellcome Trust Collection.
Early European Books Online aims to make available all works printed in Europe before 1701 together with all pre-1701 works in European languages printed further afield. Works are presented via high-resolution full-colour page scans and each work has been scanned in its entirety including covers, spines, edges, endpapers, blank pages and any loose inserts.

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Early Western Korans [accessible until 31st December 2024] This link opens in a new window
Gives access to 62 Early Printed Western Korans, which include all the Arabic Koran editions printed in Europe before 1850 and all complete translations directly from the Arabic (until about 1860). Among the secondary translations, only those into German and Dutch are offered completely. Also made available are partial editions of typographical or academic interest.

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Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Over 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material 1492-1962 from libraries and archives around the world.

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Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill) [accessible until 31st December 2024] This link opens in a new window
The Encyclopaedia of Islam is an online version of a work available in print in the University Library. It contains all 12 volumes of the printed edition with over 13,000 entries covering all aspects of Islam and the Islamic world.

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Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān (Brill) [accessible until 31st December 2024] This link opens in a new window
The Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān is an online version of a work available in print in the University Library. It contains the complete articles of this 5 volume printed edition and with nearly 1000 entries is an encyclopaedic dictionary of Qur'ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis complemented by essays on the most important themes and subjects within Qur'ānic studies.

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European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
A bibliographic database of European printed records relating to the Americas, created from "European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750".

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Guardian, 1821-2003 and Observer, 1791-2003 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The Guardian from 2004 onward is also available via YorSearch.
The Observer from 2004 onward is also available via YorSearch.
A full text archive of page and article facsimile images of the Guardian (1821 - 2003) and the Observer (1791 - 2003).

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LION - Literature Online This link opens in a new window
This resource is a searchable, online library of over 300,000 works of English and American poetry, prose and drama. It also provides access to a growing collection of online journals, reference works, author biographies and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL).

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Mingana Collection This link opens in a new window
Digital facsimiles of 71 manuscripts from the Mingana Collection housed at the University of Birmingham. The manuscripts freely available online are in Arabic, Syriac, Persian and Greek with a focus on illustrated manuscripts and early Islamic and Syraic materials, including two of the oldest known copies of the Qur'an in existence (one believed to date from 7th century), unique illustrated manuscripts from the 16th century, and early Arabic poetry.
Nexis This link opens in a new window
Personalisation is available via the link above.

Alternative link without personalisation if you have problems with the link above (please clear the cookies and cache in your browser): Nexis.
Nexis is a major source of global news and business information. It provides full-text access to over 34,000 publications, with more than 12,000 news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals. Updated daily; back issues archive varies by title.

Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.

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Oxford Scholarship Online: Literature This link opens in a new window
Titles from Oxford University Press covering a wide range of topics, themes and periods in literature.

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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE, founded by Johns Hopkins University Press, is a database of over 380 full text scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences from over 70 (mainly university press) publishers.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Times Digital Archive, 1785 - 2019 This link opens in a new window
A full-image archive of every page published by The Times (London) from 1785 until 2019. The text within the images is fully searchable at the article level.

For The Times from 2020 onwards see the entry: Times 1985 - present.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Times of India, 1838 onwards (excluding the most recent 9 years) (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Times of India current content is also available via YorSearch.
A full text archive of page and article facsimile images of The Times of India from 1838 onwards (excluding the most recent 9 years).

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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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Wellcome Arabic Manuscripts Online This link opens in a new window
Digital facsimiles of manuscript books and fragments from the Wellcome Library's Asian Collection, including well-known medical texts by Avicenna, Ibn al-Quff and Ibn an-Nafis. Comprehensive descriptions of all manuscripts are also available.

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Welsh Ballads Online This link opens in a new window
A digitised collection of 5,000 ballads from Welsh libraries and archives, totalling 20,000 pages of text from the 18th - 20th century. These ballads were once sung on street corners and sold as cheap pamphlets for entertainment and now offer a valuable insight into the language, history, religion and music of Wales.

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English and Related Literature

Global and Post-Colonial Literature

Global and Post-Colonial Literature

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Global and Postcolonial Literature

Microfilms

Microfilms

Journals

Journals and Theses

Journals

Theses

Databases

Databases and Online Sources