Literature and literary criticism

Poèmes, pièces, prose ; introduction à l'analyse de textes littéraires français            (KL 3rd floor, PQ 53 .S36 1973)

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Entries on French theory and criticism, organized by period. Also entries on specific critics like Flaubert, Foucault or Rousseau.

Dictionary of Literary Biography
Several volumes on French literature:

•  French dramatists, 1789-1914
• 19th century French poetry, modern poets
•  literature of the Middle Ages,  16th century, 17th century, Enlightenment (vol. 1 and 2), romanticism and realism, naturalism and beyond
• French novelists 1900-1930, 1930-1969 and since 1960
   

Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature
Cambridge Companion to the French Novel
New Oxford Companion to Literature in French (Reference PQ 41 .N48 1995)

French history and culture

• Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture (online)
• Encyclopedia of contemporary French culture (Reference DC 33.7 .E53 1998)
• Columbia History of 20th Century French Thought (Reference DC 33.7 .C575 2006)
• Medieval France: An Encyclopedia (Reference DC 33.2 .M44 1995)
• France and the Americas: Culture, Politics and History (online): on "the impacts that French and American politics, foreign policy, and culture have had on shaping each country's identity."
   

Country information

• Portail de la Statistique Publique: acess all statistical data produced by French governmental agencies.
• Data.gouv.fr: open data site containing demographic and socio-economic data on France.
• Countries and their Culture: a general country encyclopedia
• Background Notes on France ( U.S. Department of State)
• World Factbook on France (CIA)

  MLA Bibliography
The most comprehensive database to search for books, book chapters, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, and folklore. To learn how to search for articles on French literature in MLA, view our tutorial (4mn).

  JSTOR
Hundreds of full-text journals in a variety of subject areas, including French / Francophone literature and history. Coverage of most journals extends back to the journal's first issue (sometimes in the 1800s) up to, but not including the last few years.

• How can I export JSTOR articles  to RefWorks? 
  • Searching for foreign-language material in JSTOR

Project Muse
A collection of journals in the humanities and social sciences, including French studies and literature. Coverage extends back to the last few years.  How to export to RefWorks

Historical Abstracts
The most comprehensive listing of articles for the history of countries outside North America. How to export to RefWorks

French Cultural Studies.
A journal with wideranging coverage including French culture, language and society in all sections of the education system.

Persee and Cairn.info: French scholarly journals online

Isidore: gateway to French scholarly sources

Bilingual dictionaries

Collins French Dictionary (online)
Harrap's French and English college dictionary (Reference PC 2640 .H2725 2006)
Grand dictionnaire français-anglais, anglais-français Larousse (Reference PC 2640 .G735 1993)
Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (Reference PC 2640 .O94 2001)
ARTFL English-French Dictionary (online)
The Facts on File English/French visual dictionary (Reference PC 2640 .C64 1987)
Business French Dictionary (online)

French dictionaries

Dictionnaire de la langue française (Littré) (Reference PC2625 .L63). Free online access to the dictionary.
Dictionnaire Larousse (Reference PC 2625 .L49 2009)
Dictionnaire Petit Robert (Reference PC 2625 .R553)
Dictionaire de Synonymes (free - online)
Dictionnaires d'autrefois: (free - online) French Dictionaries from the 17th - 20th centuries, including several Dictionnaires de l'Académie française along with the Estienne, Nicot, Bayle, Moréri, Féraud, and Littré.
Larousse online: free online Larousse French dictionary, including dictionary of synomyms, idioms, homomyms, and quotations.

Complete list of dictionaries available at KL: French language dictionaries, French language dictionaries English

French language Readers at Kresge Library

Free language learning tools online:

• Français Interactif: a free online textbook to learn French, developed at the University of Texas at Austin's department of French
• Le Conjugueur
• Forvo: a wiki where native speakers can post the pronunciation of words
• Wordsteps: a fun way to learn new vocabulary
• CAPL: a growing collection of images for language learning

ARTstor ARTstor has over 82,000 images related to French art, culture and history. You can browse by geographic area.

For more images, search Gallica, Europeana or Culture.fr

Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA): online access to the INA's audiovisual archive. A large collection of audio and video clips on French popular culture, history, politics, etc.

   French Culture: the official website of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US.

France.fr: multilingual gateway to all the internet resources of the French government. A good source to learn more about the country, to prepare for a visit or studies in France, etc.

Au Fil du Temps: a comprehensive list of resources on French culture.

Find articles, books, etc...

Library Catalog
Use the catalog to find books, videos, recordings, and goverment documents we have at the library.

MelCat
A statewide catalog of many of Michigan's libraries. It allows you to request books at another library be sent to Kresge Library for you.

To request an item from another library:

For a broad coverage of the French language press see LexisNexis Academic Universe . Articles from Le Monde, Le Point, L'Express, and many other French newspapers and magazines.Click on the News Tab and then the Foreign Language link, then choose "French". For instructions on how to search for foreign language news in LexisNexis, click here. For direct access to French press search, click here.

EUfeeds: easy access to the latest articles from dozens of French newspapers and magazines.

Gallica hosts numerous titles from the 19th and early 20th century, such as Le Figaro, Le Temps, L'Humanité.

   Gallica: the digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.



ARTFL Project:  "nearly 3,000 texts, ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing. The 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are about equally represented, with a smaller selection of 17th century texts as well as some medieval and Renaissance texts.  Genres include novels, verse, theater, journalism, essays, correspondence, and treatises. Subjects include literary criticism, biology, history, economics, and philosophy."

History of France: primary sources: full text of documents for French history from antiquity to the present.

Culture.fr: "le portail de la culture". Its collections contain millions of documents and images from various cultural institutions, all gathered in one website.

Europeana: a portal to the online collections of the most important cultural institutions of Europe, including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Cité de la Musique, and some of the most important museums such as the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay.

Manioc: "bibliothèque numérique Caraïbe, Amazonie, plateau des Guyanes". A collection of text and multi-media resources, both primary and secondary, on the history of this region.

Wikisource: a free collection of French books in the public domain.

Ask a Librarian

• by phone at 248-370-4426
• via chat with reference IM
• via email at Email Us!
• in person in Kresge Library.

Research Consultation
Request an individual session to get help with your research. You can expect the session within 2-3 days.