American Immigrant Literature: Home

Please check our catalog of books, films, periodicals, and other resources before placing an interlibrary loan; If we don't have the resource you need in our collection, please click on the button below to fill out an ILL request. The library is unable to borrow class textbooks through ILL.

Welcome to this resource that will help you find research tools for your survey of American Immigrant Literature course. The contents of this guide include the tabs listed below:

• Databases, Journals, and Articles--This page lists databases, journals, and particular journals articles subscribed to by the University that may be helpful in researching immigrant literature, including resources like the MLA International Bibliography and MELUS, a journal of multi-ethnic literature in the United States.
• eBooks--This page contains e-reference, literary criticism eBooks, and physical books in our collection that related to the study of American Immigrant literature.
  • Early Works of Literature--This page has links to early works of immigrant literature, like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which are out of copyright, and some literary criticism texts on those works.
• Multimedia--This page has video interviews, blogs, and other resources from immigrant authors on your syllabus, like Lisa See and Javier Huertas.
• Web Resources--This page contains free online educational resource on the history of American immigration and immigrant literature, including the passenger search from the Ellis Island records.
• Citation Help--This page gives information on plagiarism and how to cite in MLA.
• Recommended Reading--This page included a list of recommended pleasure reading and viewing from immigrant authors, including fiction, nonfiction, and drama.

Research Starter: Emigration and Immigration in Literature from the Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature.

"In a year when politicians traffic in anti-immigrant rhetoric, there is also a Broadway musical reminding us that a broke, orphan immigrant from the West Indies built our financial system. A story that reminds us that since the beginning of the great unfinished symphony that is our American experiment, time and time again, immigrants get the job done."
--Lin Manuel Miranda, University of Pennsylvania Commencement Speech, May 16, 2016