Background information on literary works can include plot summaries, thematic overviews, author biographies, historical context, and other factual information. This kind of content can help you understand the scholarly articles you will find as you search for literary criticism.
Different from background information, literary criticism can be defined as analysis and interpretation of literary works by scholars giving their points of view. These online databases are especially helpful for finding literary criticism articles.
The following two links open into new windows.
This video tutorial shows how to find literary criticism in the library catalog and in literary article databases. Captions are available.
The catalog search demonstration begins at 00:01:06. The databases search demonstration begins at 00:02:54.
The databases demonstrated are Bloom's Literature and Gale Literature. The techniques shown are useful for any database.