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Arts & Creative Industries Subject Guide

This is the subject guide for the School of Arts & Creative Industries

Finding Journal Articles

The best way to find journal articles is to try keyword searching in LibrarySearch using the All items option.  However, you may also want to try searching directly in some of the databases that contribute to LibrarySearch.  Here's a list of the best ones for the subject area.

Historical materials

Key Resources in Merchiston Library

Key reference books

These can all be found in Merchiston Library: search for them in LibrarySearch to find the shelfmarks. 

  • Encyclopedia of post-colonial literatures in English
  • The Oxford companion to English literature
  • The Oxford companion to theatre and performance
  • The Longman companion to Victorian fiction
  • A companion to Victorian literature & culture
  • Encyclopedia of literature and criticism
  • The Norton anthology of theory and criticism
  • The Penguin dictionary of literary terms and literary theory

Drama Online

Drama Online is an award-winning digital library from Bloomsbury, the world's leading drama publisher.

The library has access to the following collections:

  • Core Collection

The collection as a whole includes over 2,000 playtexts, with titles from Bloomsbury’s imprints, Methuen Drama and The Arden Shakespeare, as well as Faber and Faber.

  • Critical Studies and Performance Practice

This collection features 800 academic books from the prestigious Methuen Drama and The Arden Shakespeare imprints. Together they offer invaluable critical, contextual and pedagogic content from leading voices in theatre, performance and Shakespeare studies. The titles in this collection are grouped under two broad areas: Context and Criticism and Theatre Craft. The collection also includes 60 actor training videos through PATAZ: Physical Actor Training - an online A-Z.

  • Nick Hern Books 

The Nick Hern Books Modern Plays collection includes over 800 plays from many of the UK and Ireland’s preeminent playwrights, as well as exciting new voices

  • Oberon Books Collection 1

Oberon Books has long been recognised as one of the most exciting publishers specialising in drama and the performing arts, with a reputation for publishing challenging and compelling works.

From ground-breaking British plays to the best of international drama and plays in translation, this is a unique and inspiring collection of over 500 titles that features a diverse gathering of canonical and contemporary drama.

  • Oberon Books Collection 2

This second collection is now complete with 402 plays.

 

Film, Images and Sound

Internet Resources: a selection to explore

  • Project Gutenberg  - over 20,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog. A grand total of over 100,000 titles is available at Project Gutenberg Partners, Affiliates and Resources. You are advised to check that books are out of copyright in the UK (or your home country) before downloading.
  • Discovering literature: Romantics and Victorians - A British Library project bringing together a wealth of the British Library’s greatest literary treasures, including numerous original manuscripts, first editions and rare illustrations. 1,200 Romantic and Victorian literary treasures, new insights by 60 experts, 25 documentary films, 30 inspirational teachers’ notes and more.
  • The Victorian web - A British Library project bringing together a wealth of the British Library’s greatest literary treasures, including numerous original manuscripts, first editions and rare illustrations. 1,200 Romantic and Victorian literary treasures, new insights by 60 experts, 25 documentary films, 30 inspirational teachers’ notes and more.
  • The Poetry Archive - "The Poetry Archive is the world's premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work"

Period images, historical background and a bit of fun. Danger - seriously fascinating! Do check any facts for accuracy.  As is the way with blogs, they are not all currently being updated.  Suggestions for additions welcomed.

•    The Victorian Peeper - Nineteenth-century Britain through the looking glass (not currently updated)
•    Pre-Raphaelite Art    (not currently updated)
•    Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood - celebrating Pre-Raphaelite women
•    British Art  including many from Victorian times.  Older postings at British Paintings 
•    The Virtual Victorian - Essie Fox's facts, fancies and fabrications
•    Georgian London   (not currently updated)
•    Victorian History - an idiosyncratic selection of short bits about elements of Victorian history
•    Victorian Calendar
•    Edwardian Promenade - La Belle Epoque in our modern world
•    Victorian London - a website, and blog, The Cat's Meat Shop
•    Victorian Gothic - much of madness, and more of sin (not currently updated)

  • Backstage -  US site " For more than 50 years, Backstage has been the most trusted place for actors to find career advice and casting information"
  • Spotlight  -  "Spotlight was founded in 1927 and is the UK's leading casting resource with unrivalled knowledge and contacts at the heart of the industry."
  • ActorTips  - "ActorTips is a free site that provides advice to beginning actors. It was founded in the late 1990s as the informational newsletter of New York-based Inverse Theater"
  • AceYourAudition: the actor's resource  - tips, techniques, free monologues
  • The Stage - news, reviews, castings etc.

 

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