For your  papers, you are expected to identify a topic, narrow it down, gain some sense of current discussions in the field about your topic, identify outside resources (other than the textbooks from the course), and say something original.  Your paper should also show an awareness of what was going on in the author's life and the time period.  This handout is intended to help you to find and identify important 18th century studies research materials that you that you will need to write a good paper. NKU's Steely Library has some, but not all, of the resources you might need to do current research.

Web Resources
 

• Go to your instructor's literary resources site, which is located at http://www.nku.edu/~rkdrury. Roll over "Literature," then click on "Early Art."
• Go to Collage. Find one image that describes some aspect of 18th century life and describe it below.
• Go to the National Portrait Gallery website. Search for a portrait of one of the authors we are studying. Describe the portrait briefly below.
• Click on the link labeled "William Hogarth and 18th Century Print Culture." Find a print that interests you and describe it briefly.

• Go back to your instructor's literary resources site, which is located at http://www.nku.edu/~rkdrury/. Roll over"Literature," then "Literature/Literary Fields," then click on "Restoration and 18th Century Literature." Click on the link labeled "C18-L Selected Readings Homepage." Find the "Selected Readings Search Engine." Enter the name of one of the authors we are studying. Read over the titles that come up, and name one topic you notice that appears to be current among scholars in 18th century literature.

• Go back to the "Restoration and 18th Century Literature" page (at http://www.nku.edu/~rkdrury/18th.html).  Under "Texts," click on "Internet Library of Early Journals." When the page comes up, look on the left side of the page and click on the "Browse" link. Click on "Gentlemen's Magazine" or "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society." Click on "Search" in the left hand column. Search on a word.  Describe one of the issues you locate.

• Go back to the "Restoration and 18th Century Literature" page (at http://www.nku.edu/~rkdrury/18th.html). Under "Material Culture," click on the link marked "18th Century Costume." Choose an article or style of clothing and describe what you learn. (The entries on "fans" are particularly interesting)

Library Resources

• Identify a poem from the provided list that you would like to use for your critical edition. Go to the library and find an NQUIRE terminal. Search for one of the authors we are studying. Identify a work published before 1800 and write down the call number (it will probably begin with "LEL").  Then go to the 1st floor and locate the Special Collections area of the library. Ask for the microfiche, then use the microfiche reader to look at the document. Print out a xerox copy of the document's title page and staple it to this handout. (Note:  you can save some time on a later assignment if you sign up for a particular poem in the Eminent Ladies anthology and locate it on microfilm at this time.) Also, Special Collections is open only from 8:30-12pm and 1-4:15 pm. Please see me if you will be unable to get to the library during these hours so that we can work around this issue.
  

• Go to the 4th floor open stacks, where journals are kept. While you are on the 4th floor, locate a recent copy of the journal "Eighteenth-Century Studies" (shelved on the periodical shelves in alphabetical order, or by call number in the stacks for earlier editions). Find the title of a recent article and write its title below. Reshelve the journal in the correct place for your classmates!

• The Oxford English Dictionary tracks when words actually entered the language and how the definitions of words change over time.  Many words used in the 18th century meant something different at the time. Looking up words in the OED is one way of making sure you don't misinterpret what an author meant in using a particular word. Find the OED online on the Steely Library website (go the NKU homepage, click on "Steely Library," then click on "databases." Locate the alphabetical listing, and go to "O.") Look up one of the following words and write down a definition that was unexpected:  projector, mop, rib, sharper, slut.. (Note: If you have a Cincinnati Public Library card, you can also get access to the OED online through their site!)

• The London Stage is an extremely important record of performances and other activities and people associated with the stage in England from 1660 to 1800. Find The London Stage in Steely Library. Look up The Country Wife, The Lucky Chance,The Rover, or The Beggar's Opera in the index.  How popular was the play you chose?  Choose one performance listed in the index (preferably an opening night) and go to the page where that performance is listed. Write below what you learn about that particular performance. Finally, go to the narrative that appears at the beginning of the season when your selected performance occurred. What was the state of the theatre at that time? What kinds of information are provided? Reshelve the book in the correct place for your classmates!

• Knowing what was happening in an author's life when he or she was writing a particular work can provide insight into the writer'swork.  Find a biography of Mary Wortley Montagu (Isobel Grundy's Comet of the Enlightenment), Frances Burney (Margaret Doody's Frances Burney), or Jane Austen (Halperin's Life of Jane Austen). Look at the chapter topics and write an insight below. Then reshelve the book in the correct place for your classmates!

• One extremely important resource now available on the Steely Library webpage is Project Muse, a major source of current, online journal articles. From a terminal on campus or at home, go to the Steely Library website, and choose "Databases." Go to the alphabetical index and find Project Muse.  Click on the "Journals" link to see what journals are available. Then go back to the main page of the Project Muse site and click on the "Search link." Type in the name of one of the authors we are studying, or type in a search term you're interested in. Follow one or two of the links to get a sense of what is available in the articles. Write something you learned below.
  

• Another  extremely important resource now available on the Steely Library webpage is JSTOR, a major source of  online journal articles. From a terminal on campus or at home, go to the Steely Library website, and choose "Databases." Go to the alphabetical index and find JSTOR.  Enter a keyword (for example, you might try "eighteenth century" or "libertine"). Don't forget to check the boxes for any fields in which your search word might appear. Select one of the articles that pertains to your keyword. Write something you learned about the period below.

• A recently added resource for research in the humanities is the NetLibrary, a resource offering access online to complete books. Go to the alphabetical index and find NetLibrary.  Search on a keyword (for example, you might try "eighteenth"). "Check out" one of the e-books. Write something you learned about the period below.