The Annotated Bibliography

DUE: By Wednesday, May 16, 5:00 in my office. or by Bridges.

I will accept this assignment in hard copy format. This may be easier for some of you, especially if you include clippings or other information difficult to transform into digital matter.

American Studies tends to look farther afield for insights into the culture and its character, using a range of literary sources, artifacts, music, art, and popular culture of all sorts. By the end of the semester, each of you will be preparing an informal annotated bibliography on the topic Houses and Homes in American Culture. This will include at least:

1. One Novel

2. One Short Story

3. One Poem

4. One Essay

5. One Newspaper or Journal article

6. One Painting (high style)

7. One popular illustration

8. One piece of popular music

9. One Movie, Play, or Television Program

10. Other..... Something else, of your own choice or devising,

. . .in which American houses or homes are the focus.

Illustrations or examples from our texts are not eligible.

By American, I mean residences within the geographic United States. We will be talking about European houses, but don’t include European examples in your bibliography.

I want you to find these largely using the Internet. It is good for you to get as much research practice as possible. You can, of course use other sources as well. However, you will quickly learn that the Internet is a very good way to access even local news stories.

The annotation for each one will include:

1.How you located the item. If you found it on the internet, include the website address and the search engine you used to find it.

2.A very short abstract (2-3 sentences) of the content.

3.A paragraph or two explaining what a consideration of this particular item added to your understanding of the role of houses and homes in American culture.

Where to Look:

For the Novel and Short Story. There's a good data base at WSU. It includes links to online materials. Magazine fiction, there are a number of historic magazines on line. Track them down through the two Making of America sites: University of Michigan, and Cornell University. These include magazines like Scribners (where the H. C. Bunner stories were published), and also other popular mazines like

For the Poem. Try Famous Poems and poets. You can search the list of poets, and there is also the possibility of searching by theme.

For the Essay or Monograph: The RWU Library Databases are a good source. You're looking for something scholarly, rather than popular. Have you tried texting a librarian yet?

For the Newspaper or Journal Article Try my bookmarks. There are links which might help wit the Essay, as well.

For the High Style Painting: A good place to browse is the online Art Encyclopedia. Over 2000 American Artists of all periods are represented in the database, and from the data base links are listed to sites with pictures.

For the Popular Illustration: See above Note that some are listed as illustrators and some as painters. You'll want to check out the illustrators. Many of these either sold mass produced prints or drew covers for popular magazines.

For Popular Music. The Library of Congress American Memory is super. Check out the sheet music collections, both for lyrics and for some wonderful cover art. You might also check out YouTube for examples of some songs you might find in the collections at the library.

For the Movie, Play, or Television Program Watch to make sure that the links refer to American plays--Another source for plays is HERE. Each word or phrase links to a different place.

For the other, you'll have to use your own imagination.