literature review definition anthropology

Anthropology Research Guide

• Picking a topic
• Background research and finding books
• Advanced searching in databases and Google
• Evaluating sources
• Chicago Style
• Literature Reviews

What is a Lit Review?

How to write a lit review.

• Video Introduction to Lit Reviews

Main Objectives

Examples of lit reviews, additional resources.

What is a literature review?

• Either a complete piece of writing unto itself or a section of a larger piece of writing like a book or article
• A thorough and critical look at the information and perspectives that other experts and scholars have written about a specific topic
• A way to give historical perspective on an issue and show how other researchers have addressed a problem
• An analysis of sources based on your own perspective on the topic
• Based on the most pertinent and significant research conducted in the field, both new and old

• A descriptive list or collection of summaries of other research without synthesis or analysis
• An annotated bibliography
• A literary review (a brief, critical discussion about the merits and weaknesses of a literary work such as a play, novel or a book of poems)
• Exhaustive; the objective is not to list as many relevant books, articles, reports as possible
• To convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic
• To explain what the strengths and weaknesses of that knowledge and those ideas might be
• To learn how others have defined and measured key concepts    
• To keep the writer/reader up to date with current developments and historical trends in a particular field or discipline
• To establish context for the argument explored in the rest of a paper
• To provide evidence that may be used to support your own findings
• To demonstrate your understanding and your ability to critically evaluate research in the field
• To suggest previously unused or underused methodologies, designs, and quantitative and qualitative strategies
• To identify gaps in previous studies and flawed methodologies and/or theoretical approaches in order to avoid replication of mistakes
• To help the researcher avoid repetition of earlier research
• To suggest unexplored populations
• To determine whether past studies agree or disagree and identify strengths and weaknesses on both sides of a controversy in the literature

• Choose a topic that is interesting to you; this makes the research and writing process more enjoyable and rewarding.
• For a literature review, you'll also want to make sure that the topic you choose is one that other researchers have explored before so that you'll be able to find plenty of relevant sources to review.

• Your research doesn't need to be exhaustive. Pay careful attention to bibliographies. Focus on the most frequently cited literature about your topic and literature from the best known scholars in your field. Ask yourself: "Does this source make a significant contribution to the understanding of my topic?"
• Reading other literature reviews from your field may help you get ideas for themes to look for in your research. You can usually find some of these through the library databases by adding literature review as a keyword in your search.
• Start with the most recent publications and work backwards. This way, you ensure you have the most current information, and it becomes easier to identify the most seminal earlier sources by reviewing the material that current researchers are citing.

The organization of your lit review should be determined based on what you'd like to highlight from your research. Here are a few suggestions:

• Chronology : Discuss literature in chronological order of its writing/publication to demonstrate a change in trends over time or to detail a history of controversy in the field or of developments in the understanding of your topic.  
• Theme: Group your sources by subject or theme to show the variety of angles from which your topic has been studied. This works well if, for example, your goal is to identify an angle or subtopic that has so far been overlooked by researchers.  
• Methodology: Grouping your sources by methodology (for example, dividing the literature into qualitative vs. quantitative studies or grouping sources according to the populations studied) is useful for illustrating an overlooked population, an unused or underused methodology, or a flawed experimental technique.

• Be selective. Highlight only the most important and relevant points from a source in your review.
• Use quotes sparingly. Short quotes can help to emphasize a point, but thorough analysis of language from each source is generally unnecessary in a literature review.
• Synthesize your sources. Your goal is not to make a list of summaries of each source but to show how the sources relate to one another and to your own work.
• Make sure that your own voice and perspective remains front and center. Don't rely too heavily on summary or paraphrasing. For each source, draw a conclusion about how it relates to your own work or to the other literature on your topic.
• Be objective. When you identify a disagreement in the literature, be sure to represent both sides. Don't exclude a source simply on the basis that it does not support your own research hypothesis.
• At the end of your lit review, make suggestions for future research. What subjects, populations, methodologies, or theoretical lenses warrant further exploration? What common flaws or biases did you identify that could be corrected in future studies?

• Double check that you've correctly cited each of the sources you've used in the citation style requested by your professor (APA, MLA, etc.) and that your lit review is formatted according to the guidelines for that style.

Your literature review should:

• Be focused on and organized around your topic.
• Synthesize your research into a summary of what is and is not known about your topic.
• Identify any gaps or areas of controversy in the literature related to your topic.
• Suggest questions that require further research.
• Have your voice and perspective at the forefront rather than merely summarizing others' work.
• Cyberbullying: How Physical Intimidation Influences the Way People are Bullied
• Use of Propofol and Emergence Agitation in Children
• Eternity and Immortality in Spinoza's 'Ethics'
• Literature Review Tutorials and Samples - Wilson Library at University of La Verne
• Literature Reviews: Introduction - University Library at Georgia State
• Literature Reviews - The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill
• Writing a Literature Review - Boston College Libraries
• Write a Literature Review - University Library at UC Santa Cruz
• << Previous: Chicago Style
• Next: Get help >>
• Last Updated: Aug 28, 2024 11:46 AM
• URL: https://researchguides.elac.edu/anthropology

Anthropology How To

• Getting Started
• Choosing and Developing a Topic

Find Out What's Already Been Done

Searching comprehensively, know your sources.

• Finding Additional Sources This link opens in a new window
• Collecting and Analyzing Data
• Methods Training and Tutorials
• Software and Equipment
• Requesting Library Materials - Step by Step

Begin your literature review as soon as possible. Ideally, you already started doing some research while refining and adjusting your topic idea.

What is a literature review?

A literature review provides an overview of the scholarly literature (e.g. books, articles, dissertations, proceedings) relevant to an area of research or theory. The review typically includes a summary of the major questions in an area and critical evaluations of previous work. Literature reviews are also helpful for their comprehensive bibliographies.

Literature reviews typically include these components:

• An overview of the subject
• Organization of relevant publications into subtopics, theoretical areas, or key debates
• An analysis and discussion of how various works relate to one another the the relevant questions
• A discussion of unresolved questions or future directions
• Some will also include discussions of key data collection and analysis methodologies

For more detail see this webpage by the UC Santa Cruz Library . The following resources are great places to start when compiling a comprehensive bibliography.

• Annual Reviews Online This is a great place to start your research. The literature reviews include extensive bibliographies that can lead you to related articles/books. This database covers the social sciences, sciences, and biomedicine.
• Oxford Bibliographies Online. Anthropology This link opens in a new window Guide to scholarly literature in the field of Anthropology. Subdivided into articles by established scholars covering major categories of research with corresponding bibliographies of recommended resources.

Also consult reference works, encyclopedias, and handbooks to help identify relevant terminology.

Create a Search Strategy

• Try different keywords and search terms using different databases and catalogs. Every database is different so some keywords and search terms work well for one database but not for another.
• Keep a record of which search terms worked and in which databases. This can keep you from repeating your steps.
• Include synonyms and plural/singular forms of keywords. Separate synonyms by OR . Separate the synonyms from the rest of the words by using parentheses.
• Use truncation symbols (or wildcard symbols) to include variations of your search terms (e.g. scien$ will search for sciences, scientific, scientifically, etc.).
• Most databases have a help section that defines truncation symbols and offers other tips.
• Combining different concepts/search terms with AND
• Use the limit functions of the database. These are often located on the left side of the results page, or look in the database's Help menu to discover the limit functions it offers. Possibilities include limiting by date, language, type of publication, etc.
• Then, pay close attention to terminology used and the cited references (a.k.a. bibliography, end notes, footnotes) to find similar publications. However, this can bias your project by focusing on only one side of an issue so use caution with this method.
• Ask for help. Ask a librarian for search tips. Also, use the help screens in the databases for instructions and tips.

Search Databases and Catalogs

The library catalog and these databases are good places to start for most anthropology projects:

• JSTOR - Access to a wide variety of journal articles in the humanities, social sciences, and area studies.
• Anthropology Plus - Covers journal articles, edited books, and essays in anthropology, archeology, and related interdisciplinary research.
• Scopus or Web of Science - Two interdisciplinary databases that cover science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.

For more options, such as area studies databases and other specialized resources or indexes, browse the Anthropology Research Guide or Databases @ Emory .

Ethnographies can be tricky to find since they are not classified in a consistent way. See this page for advice on identifying and finding ethnographies. Emory also has a few specialized tools that can help you find find books and films.

Contact the Anthropology Librarian for an appointment or see if the Anthropology Research Guide has what you need.

• One Perfect Source? Your topic seemed so great! So why can't you find any information on it? If you're looking for an all-in-one source that addresses your topic perfectly, you might need a different approach.
• Know Your Sources: A Guide to Understanding Sources Confused about the different kinds of sources and how to choose? This infographic breaks it down for you.
• Evaluating Information - Applying the CRAAP Test A detailed list of questions to help you decide if the information you're finding is reliable.
• The Craft of Research by Booth includes helpful information on evaluating sources. See section 5.4 or p.76 in the 2016 edition.

Check peer review status: If the journal itself or the database you searched does not tell you if a journal is peer-reviewed (refereed), Ulrich's Periodicals Directory can help. Search for the journal title (NOT the article title). If the journal is peer-reviewed it will have the "referee" icon next to it.

• << Previous: Choosing and Developing a Topic
• Next: Finding Additional Sources >>
• Last Updated: Aug 30, 2023 11:19 AM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.emory.edu/main/anthropologicalmethods

Anthropology

• Getting Started
• Find Articles
• Find Videos
• Find Images
• Citation: Chicago Author-Date
• Annotated Bibliographies
• All about Theses

What is a literature review?

• Research Proposals

What are Literature Reviews?

Literature reviews examine scholarly literature surrounding a subject-area, topic, or historical event. Literature reviews typically synthesize popular academic arguments, spanning multiple viewpoints. They often explore common trends, themes, and arguments, examining how perceptions of an event have changed over time. However, literature reviews are more than historiographies. Literature reviews should evaluate sources, determining common argumentative flaws. They should also identify knowledge-gaps in the field. You should not make a new argument in your literature review. However, you should evaluate the legitimacy of current sources and arguments. 

An example literature review, from the University of West Florida, is attached below:

How Should I Write My Literature Review? 

• Literature reviews on your subject likely already exist. Before writing your literature review, you should examine pre-existing ones. This process will quickly familiarize you with prominent themes, arguments, and sources in your field.
• Once you are familiar with influential arguments and sources, you should begin organizing your literature review. Literature reviews are organized by ideas, not sources. You should align your sources to popular arguments, evaluating the similarities and differences between these arguments. Ideally, you should examine how the scholarly conversation has changed over time. What aspects of the conversation have become more important? What arguments have fallen out of favor? Why has this happened? 
• The introduction should briefly introduce common themes, and foreshadow your organizational strategy.
• The "body" of your literature review should analyze sources and arguments.
• Finally, the conclusion should identify gaps in the scholarly conversation, and summarize your findings. Where is further research needed?
• Like a research paper, your literature review should include a bibliography. 

For more information on literature reviews, including more tips on writing them, visit the link below:

Literature Review: Conducting & Writing  by the  University of West Florida Library

• << Previous: All about Theses
• Next: Research Proposals >>
• Last Updated: Jul 10, 2024 2:23 PM
• URL: https://davidson.libguides.com/anthropology

Mailing Address : Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035

• University of La Verne
• Subject Guides

ANTH 393: Anthropological Writing

• Annotated Bib/Lit Review
• Find Articles/Films
• Resources by Discipline
• Annotated Bibliography
• Chicago Annotated Bibliographies
• What is a Literature Review?
• Literature Review Resources
• The 5 Steps to Writing a Literature Review
• Organize Citations
• An annotated bibliography is a references page with special notes (annotations) for each citation. Generally the annotation describes the citations and how it relates to the assignment. 
• Annotated Bibliography Samples Samples in MLA, APA, and Chicago Style.
• Annotated Bibliography: Chicago From Eastern Nazarene College
• Annotated Bib: Chicago Style From Modesto Jr. College
• Chicago Style Annotated Bib From Lonestar College
• A literature review is a critical, analytical summary and synthesis of the current knowledge of a topic. As a researcher, you collect the available literature on a topic, and then select the literature that is most relevant for your purpose. Your written literature review summarizes and analyses the themes, topics, methods, and results of that literature in order to inform the reader about the history and current status of research on that topic.
• The literature review informs the reader of the researcher's knowledge of the relevant research already conducted on the topic under discussion, and places the author's current study in context of previous studies.
• As part of a senior project, the literature review points out the current issues and questions concerning a topic. By relating the your research to a knowledge gap in the existing literature, you should demonstrate how his or her proposed research will contribute to expanding knowledge in that field.
• Short Literature Review Sample This literature review sample guides students from the thought process to a finished review.
• Literature Review Matrix (Excel Doc) Excel file that can be edited to suit your needs.
• Literature Review Matrix (PDF) Source: McLean, Lindsey. "Literature Review." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2015. https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/literature-review.
• Sample Literature Reviews: Univ. of West Florida Literature review guide from the University of West Florida library guides.
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) Sample literature review in APA from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL)

• << Previous: Find Books
• Next: Citations >>
• Last Updated: Aug 16, 2024 4:01 PM
• URL: https://laverne.libguides.com/anth393

Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons

Catalog search, site search.

• Seattle University
• Lemieux Library

Anthropology

• Literature Reviews
• Get Started
• Articles and Primary Literature
• Videos and Streaming
• Data and Statistical Resources

Get Research Help

Mary linden sepulveda.

What is A Literature Review?

Definition :

A Literature Review surveys scholarly source materials that are relevant to a person's research thesis/problem and/or a particular issue or theory. It also provides a critical analysis that summarizes and synthesizes the source materials while also demonstrating how a person's research pertains to or fits within the larger discipline of study.

Literature Reviews vary from discipline to discipline as well as across assignments, but generally a good literature review is designed to help you answer 2 questions:

• What do we know about this particular issue, theory or subject?
• What do we not know about this particular issue, theory or subject?

Good literature reviews also :

• Evaluate the context of scholarly material for its contribution to the understanding of the research thesis being studied.
• Explain the relationships between each of the works under deliberation.
• Identify gaps in previous research.
• Define new ways to interpret research within a discipline.
• Address conflicts found in contradictory research previously conducted.
• Identify the need for additional research.

For Your Literature Review Include:

1. Introduction to the topic. State the topic, purpose, and significance. Provide a brief overview outlining the central points covered.

2. Relevance and Importance of studying this topic. What direction will the review take? Specific Aspects?

3. Literature Review. Organize your review of the research literature:  Methods, Chronological, different approaches or perspectives, etc... Remember you want to find the seminal or major works on your topic Avoid discussinh each article separately. Explore relationships and aim to compare/contrast more than one article in most paragraphs.

4. Any "Lessons Learned" that can be drawn from the literature review.

5. Future Directions. State any areas for further research, i.e. gaps, omissions, inconsistencies, hitherto unexplored aspects. 

 What types of literature are considered in a literature review

Peer-Reviewed articles are usually considered the most credible sources and the most common format of literature for a review.

In addition, when doing your research, consider those articles written by scholars who have written extensively on the specific topic or related areas. 

And more ......

A literature review DOES:

• discuss the work of others
• describe, in a narrative fashion, the major developments that relate to your research question
• evaluate other researchers' methods and findings
• identify any gaps in their research
• indicate how your research is going to be different in some way

A literature review DOES NOT:

• simply list all the resources that you consult in developing your research (that would be a Works Cited or Works Consulted page)
• simply list resources with a few factual, non-evaluative notes about what is in each work (that would be an Annotated Bibliography)
• try to discuss every bit of research that has ever been done relating to your topic (that would be far too big of a task)

Still confused?  See this guide  from the University of North Carolina for a more detailed explanation of lit reviews.

Tips for Writing Your Literature Review

• Signal Phrases for Summarizing, Paraphrasing, & Quotations
• Do not over "quote." If you only quote from every single author you found, then you are not showing any original thinking or analysis. Use quotes judiciously. Use quotes to highlight a particular passage or thought that exemplifies the research, theory or topic you are researching.
• Instead use paraphrasing to report, in your own words, what the author was reporting or theorizing.
• Summarize findings, important sections or a whole article--this is different from paraphrasing since you are not re-stating the author words but identifying the main points of what you are reading in a concise matter for your readers.
• When synthesizing your findings for the literature review (this is when you make comparisons, establish relationships between authors' works, point out weaknesses, strengths and gaps among the literature review), you still need to give credit to these sources.
• Short paragraphs are easier to read than long paragraphs.
• Subheadings and subsections can help to underscore the structure of your review.
• Do more than just summarize the readings.  A lit review is not an annotated bibliography.
• Resist the temptation to refer to *all* the readings you've evaluated.  To begin with, focus on readings you've identified as essential or representative

Literature Review vs. Annotated Bibliography

Literature reviews and annotated bibliographies may appear similar in nature, but in fact, they vary greatly in two very important areas: purpose and format.

Differences in Purpose :

Literature Review : A literature review works to do two main things. The first is to provide a case for continuing research into a particular subject or idea by giving an overview of source materials you have discovered on a subject or idea. The second is to demonstrate how your research will fit into the the larger discipline of study by noting discipline knowledge gaps and contextulizing questions for the betterment of the discipline. Literature reviews tend to have a stated or implied thesis as well.

Annotated Bibliography : An annotated bibliography is basically an aphabetically arranged list of references that consists of citations and a brief summary and critique of each of the source materials. The element of critiquing appears to give literature reviews and annotated bibliographies their apparent similarities but in truth this is where they greatly differ. An annotated bibliography normally critiques the quality of the source material  while literature reviews concentrate on the value of the source material in its ability to answer a particular question or support an argument.  

Differences in Format :

Literature Review : A literature review is a formally written prose document very similar to journal articles.  Many literature reviews are incorporated directly into scholarly source material as part of the formal research process. The literature review is typically a required component of dissertations and theses.

Annotated Bibliography : An annotated bibliography is a formal list of citations with annotations or short descriptions and critiques of particular source materials. Annotated bibliographies act as a precursor to a literature review as an organizational tool.

Literature Review Examples

To find literature reviews in databases like Academic Search Complete:

• Type your search term in the first search box.
• Type literature review in the second search box.

Some sample reviews:

• Writing a Short Literature Review
• Sample Literature Review
• Another Sample Literature Review

Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronologically by Events   If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union. By Publication Date Order your sources by publication date if the order demonstrates an important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies. Thematically (“conceptual categories”) Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it will still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The only difference here between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note however that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point made. Methodologically A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Internet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

(adapted from  "The Literature Review"  from Organizing Your Social Research Paper, University of Southern California )

Best Practices: Quoting, Paraphrasing, etc.

Definitions:

Quoting *: "(a) to speak or write (a passage) from another usually with credit acknowledgment. (b) to repeat a passage especially in substantiation or illustration."

Paraphrasing *: Paraphrase is the "restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form."

Summarizing *: It's the process of summarizing a text or paragraph to tis main points succinctly.

Synthesizing *: "1. (a) the composition or combination of parts or elements so as to form a whole."

 *Definitions from Merriam Webster Dictionary Online: http://www.m-w.com <Accessed September 1st, 2011>

• << Previous: Data and Statistical Resources
• Last Updated: Aug 20, 2024 11:27 AM
• URL: https://library.seattleu.edu/guides/anthropology

•   LibGuides
•   A-Z List
•   Help

ANT 2000 / Introduction to Anthropology

• Indigenous Peoples of the World This link opens in a new window
• Find Lit. Review Tips
• Ue AI (or not) & Prevent Plagiarism
• Become a Professional Fact Checker
• Craft your Search
• I.D. Peer-Reviewed Articles
• Literature Review Worksheet

Literature Review

• Empirical Research
• Common Mistakes
• Sample Lit. Reviews

A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers.

A good literature review is not simply a list describing or summarizing several articles. a good literature review shows signs of synthesis and understanding of the topic. it surveys, summarizes, and links together research (a.k.a., literature) in a given field., a good literature review:, 1. is organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question, 2. synthesizes results into a summary of what is and is not known, 3. identifies areas of controversy in the literature, 4. formulates questions that need further research.

• Literature Reviews This handout will explain what literature reviews are and offer insights into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. - From Writing Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Writing the Literature Review: Step-by-Step Tutorial (parts 1, 2, & 3) This three-part video on the Literature Review by David White of the University of Maryland, gives short simple instructions on the conduct and writing of a Literature Review
• SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window *Find reference materials on conducting research. *Find information on how to design and conduct a research project. *Learn how to conduct a literature review. *Read case studies from researchers. *Find e-books in qualitative methods. *Find downloadable datasets to practice quantitative statistical and analytical methods. *View streaming video collection dedicated to methods. Tools include a project planner, methods map, which stats test to help determine which statistical method to apply, 2,000+ qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods case studies, 500+ datasets-indexed by method and data type, streaming video collections, and more. more... less... Includes diversified types of research materials such as reference works, journal articles, datasets, e-books, and videos by leading academics. It has the largest e-book collection in qualitative methods. The resources cover every aspect of research skills training to help researchers at all levels through the steps of the research process, from developing a research question, doing a literature review, planning a project, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up a report, dissertation or thesis.

How to find Empirical Studies:

1. read the descriptions of the databases to decide which one to use., 2. click on the database link., 3. do an advanced search., 4. type in your keywords., use and between disparate terms and or between similar terms., for example:, line 1: "food desert", line 2: miami or "south florida" or overtown or ... *, notice i put the phrases in "quotes". this tells the database to look for the words side by side., use * for stems of words.  for example, grocer* will find grocery, groceries, grocer, etc., 5. click the box in the database for peer-reviewed. this will provide results that are reviewed by other scholars and evaluated whether the research is sound, reliable, and valid., 6. when you get your results, read through the abstract to look for hints of an empirical study., hints include:, a. specific research question, b. primary data, c. ability to replicate, d. conclusions, 7. if there isn't a link to the full-text, click find it @fiu to search for the full-text..

What is an Empirical Study?

It is report of research based on actual observation or experiment., is there a specific research question, does the article include primary data, can the study be replicated, how are conclusions formed.

• Types of Data Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods
• Types of Research Definitions of 5 common types of research.
• Types of Studies Definitions of different types of studies.

• Literature Review from USC LIbraries Detailed page on different kinds of literature reviews and what should/should not be included.

Some questions to think about as you develop your literature review:

• Who are the significant research personalities in this area?
• Is there consensus about the topic?
• What aspects have generated significant debate on the topic?
• What methods or problems were identified by others studying in the field and how might they impact your research?
• What is the most productive methodology for your research based on the literature you have reviewed?
• What is the current status of research in this area?
• What sources of information or data were identified that might be useful to you?

When deciding what publications to include in a literature review, ask the following questions.

• Credibility -- What are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence [e.g. case studies, empirical evidence, statistics, recent scientific findings]?
• Methodology  -- Were the techniques used to identify, gather, and analyze the data appropriate for the research problem? Was the sample size appropriate? Were the results effectively interpreted and reported?
• Objectivity  -- Is the author's perspective even-handed or biased? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
• Persuasiveness  -- Which of the publications have most convincing or least convincing thesis?
• Value  -- Does the work contribute to an understanding of the subject?
• Need more help?

The links below include literature reviews.  

• Accounting and the 'Insoluble' Problem of Health-Care Costs
• Understanding the Concept of Wellness for the Future of the Tourism Industry: A Literature Review.
• Promoting Malaysia Medical Tourism Through MyCREST Oriented Retrofitted Hospitals
• Do the uninsured demand less care? Evidence from Maryland's hospitals
• Income vs price subsidy: policy options to help the urban poor facing food price surge

• << Previous: Indigenous Peoples of the World
• Next: Cite Right >>
• Last Updated: Jun 26, 2024 1:39 PM
• URL: https://library.fiu.edu/ANT2000

Information

Fiu libraries floorplans, green library, modesto a. maidique campus.

Hubert Library, Biscayne Bay Campus

Directions: Green Library, MMC

Directions: Hubert Library, BBC

• UConn Library
• Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide
• Introduction

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide — Introduction

• Getting Started
• How to Pick a Topic
• Strategies to Find Sources
• Evaluating Sources & Lit. Reviews
• Tips for Writing Literature Reviews
• Writing Literature Review: Useful Sites
• Citation Resources
• Other Academic Writings

What are Literature Reviews?

So, what is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries." Taylor, D.  The literature review: A few tips on conducting it . University of Toronto Health Sciences Writing Centre.

Goals of Literature Reviews

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?  A literature could be written to accomplish different aims:

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews .  Review of General Psychology , 1 (3), 311-320.

What kinds of sources require a Literature Review?

• A research paper assigned in a course
• A thesis or dissertation
• A grant proposal
• An article intended for publication in a journal

All these instances require you to collect what has been written about your research topic so that you can demonstrate how your own research sheds new light on the topic.

Types of Literature Reviews

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.

• Example : Predictors and Outcomes of U.S. Quality Maternity Leave: A Review and Conceptual Framework:  10.1177/08948453211037398  

Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L. K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . Plural Publishing.

• Example : The effect of leave policies on increasing fertility: a systematic review:  10.1057/s41599-022-01270-w

Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M. C., & Ilardi, S. S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Blackwell Publishing.

• Example : Employment Instability and Fertility in Europe: A Meta-Analysis:  10.1215/00703370-9164737

Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts .  Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53 (3), 311-318.

• Example : Women’s perspectives on career successes and barriers: A qualitative meta-synthesis:  10.1177/05390184221113735

Literature Reviews in the Health Sciences

• UConn Health subject guide on systematic reviews Explanation of the different review types used in health sciences literature as well as tools to help you find the right review type
• << Previous: Getting Started
• Next: How to Pick a Topic >>
• Last Updated: Sep 21, 2022 2:16 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uconn.edu/literaturereview

Literature Reviews

• Getting started

What is a literature review?

Why conduct a literature review, stages of a literature review, lit reviews: an overview (video), check out these books.

• Types of reviews
• 1. Define your research question
• 2. Plan your search
• 3. Search the literature
• 4. Organize your results
• 5. Synthesize your findings
• 6. Write the review
• Artificial intelligence (AI) tools
• Thompson Writing Studio This link opens in a new window
• Need to write a systematic review? This link opens in a new window

Guide Owner

Contact a Librarian

Ask a Librarian

Definition: A literature review is a systematic examination and synthesis of existing scholarly research on a specific topic or subject.

Purpose: It serves to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge within a particular field.

Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates found in academic literature.

Identifying Gaps: Aims to pinpoint areas where there is a lack of research or unresolved questions, highlighting opportunities for further investigation.

Contextualization: Enables researchers to understand how their work fits into the broader academic conversation and contributes to the existing body of knowledge.

tl;dr  A literature review critically examines and synthesizes existing scholarly research and publications on a specific topic to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge in the field.

What is a literature review NOT?

❌ An annotated bibliography

❌ Original research

❌ A summary

❌ Something to be conducted at the end of your research

❌ An opinion piece

❌ A chronological compilation of studies

The reason for conducting a literature review is to:

Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students

While this 9-minute video from NCSU is geared toward graduate students, it is useful for anyone conducting a literature review.

Writing the literature review: A practical guide

Available 3rd floor of Perkins

Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences

Available online!

So, you have to write a literature review: A guided workbook for engineers

Telling a research story: Writing a literature review

The literature review: Six steps to success

Systematic approaches to a successful literature review

Request from Duke Medical Center Library

Doing a systematic review: A student's guide

• Next: Types of reviews >>
• Last Updated: Aug 29, 2024 11:40 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.duke.edu/litreviews

Services for...

• Faculty & Instructors
• Graduate Students
• Undergraduate Students
• International Students
• Patrons with Disabilities

• Harmful Language Statement
• Re-use & Attribution / Privacy
• Support the Libraries

• Library Homepage

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide: Literature Reviews?

• Literature Reviews?
• Strategies to Finding Sources
• Keeping up with Research!
• Evaluating Sources & Literature Reviews
• Organizing for Writing
• Writing Literature Review
• Other Academic Writings

What is a Literature Review?

So, what is a literature review .

"A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available or a set of summaries." - Quote from Taylor, D. (n.d)."The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting it".

• Citation: "The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting it"

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Each field has a particular way to do reviews for academic research literature. In the social sciences and humanities the most common are:

• Narrative Reviews: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific research topic and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weaknesses, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section that summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.
• Book review essays/ Historiographical review essays : A type of literature review typical in History and related fields, e.g., Latin American studies. For example, the Latin American Research Review explains that the purpose of this type of review is to “(1) to familiarize readers with the subject, approach, arguments, and conclusions found in a group of books whose common focus is a historical period; a country or region within Latin America; or a practice, development, or issue of interest to specialists and others; (2) to locate these books within current scholarship, critical methodologies, and approaches; and (3) to probe the relation of these new books to previous work on the subject, especially canonical texts. Unlike individual book reviews, the cluster reviews found in LARR seek to address the state of the field or discipline and not solely the works at issue.” - LARR

What are the Goals of Creating a Literature Review?

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 
• Baumeister, R.F. & Leary, M.R. (1997). "Writing narrative literature reviews," Review of General Psychology , 1(3), 311-320.

When do you need to write a Literature Review?

• When writing a prospectus or a thesis/dissertation
• When writing a research paper
• When writing a grant proposal

In all these cases you need to dedicate a chapter in these works to showcase what has been written about your research topic and to point out how your own research will shed new light into a body of scholarship.

Where I can find examples of Literature Reviews?

Note:  In the humanities, even if they don't use the term "literature review", they may have a dedicated  chapter that reviewed the "critical bibliography" or they incorporated that review in the introduction or first chapter of the dissertation, book, or article.

• UCSB electronic theses and dissertations In partnership with the Graduate Division, the UC Santa Barbara Library is making available theses and dissertations produced by UCSB students. Currently included in ADRL are theses and dissertations that were originally filed electronically, starting in 2011. In future phases of ADRL, all theses and dissertations created by UCSB students may be digitized and made available.

Where to Find Standalone Literature Reviews

Literature reviews are also written as standalone articles as a way to survey a particular research topic in-depth. This type of literature review looks at a topic from a historical perspective to see how the understanding of the topic has changed over time. 

• Find e-Journals for Standalone Literature Reviews The best way to get familiar with and to learn how to write literature reviews is by reading them. You can use our Journal Search option to find journals that specialize in publishing literature reviews from major disciplines like anthropology, sociology, etc. Usually these titles are called, "Annual Review of [discipline name] OR [Discipline name] Review. This option works best if you know the title of the publication you are looking for. Below are some examples of these journals! more... less... Journal Search can be found by hovering over the link for Research on the library website.

Social Sciences

• Annual Review of Anthropology
• Annual Review of Political Science
• Annual Review of Sociology
• Ethnic Studies Review

Hard science and health sciences:

• Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science
• Annual Review of Materials Science
• Systematic Review From journal site: "The journal Systematic Reviews encompasses all aspects of the design, conduct, and reporting of systematic reviews" in the health sciences.
• << Previous: Overview
• Next: Strategies to Finding Sources >>
• Last Updated: Mar 5, 2024 11:44 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucsb.edu/litreview

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Clinics (Sao Paulo)

Approaching literature review for academic purposes: The Literature Review Checklist

Debora f.b. leite.

I Departamento de Ginecologia e Obstetricia, Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, BR

II Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Pernambuco, PE, BR

III Hospital das Clinicas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Pernambuco, PE, BR

Maria Auxiliadora Soares Padilha

Jose g. cecatti.

A sophisticated literature review (LR) can result in a robust dissertation/thesis by scrutinizing the main problem examined by the academic study; anticipating research hypotheses, methods and results; and maintaining the interest of the audience in how the dissertation/thesis will provide solutions for the current gaps in a particular field. Unfortunately, little guidance is available on elaborating LRs, and writing an LR chapter is not a linear process. An LR translates students’ abilities in information literacy, the language domain, and critical writing. Students in postgraduate programs should be systematically trained in these skills. Therefore, this paper discusses the purposes of LRs in dissertations and theses. Second, the paper considers five steps for developing a review: defining the main topic, searching the literature, analyzing the results, writing the review and reflecting on the writing. Ultimately, this study proposes a twelve-item LR checklist. By clearly stating the desired achievements, this checklist allows Masters and Ph.D. students to continuously assess their own progress in elaborating an LR. Institutions aiming to strengthen students’ necessary skills in critical academic writing should also use this tool.

INTRODUCTION

Writing the literature review (LR) is often viewed as a difficult task that can be a point of writer’s block and procrastination ( 1 ) in postgraduate life. Disagreements on the definitions or classifications of LRs ( 2 ) may confuse students about their purpose and scope, as well as how to perform an LR. Interestingly, at many universities, the LR is still an important element in any academic work, despite the more recent trend of producing scientific articles rather than classical theses.

The LR is not an isolated section of the thesis/dissertation or a copy of the background section of a research proposal. It identifies the state-of-the-art knowledge in a particular field, clarifies information that is already known, elucidates implications of the problem being analyzed, links theory and practice ( 3 - 5 ), highlights gaps in the current literature, and places the dissertation/thesis within the research agenda of that field. Additionally, by writing the LR, postgraduate students will comprehend the structure of the subject and elaborate on their cognitive connections ( 3 ) while analyzing and synthesizing data with increasing maturity.

At the same time, the LR transforms the student and hints at the contents of other chapters for the reader. First, the LR explains the research question; second, it supports the hypothesis, objectives, and methods of the research project; and finally, it facilitates a description of the student’s interpretation of the results and his/her conclusions. For scholars, the LR is an introductory chapter ( 6 ). If it is well written, it demonstrates the student’s understanding of and maturity in a particular topic. A sound and sophisticated LR can indicate a robust dissertation/thesis.

A consensus on the best method to elaborate a dissertation/thesis has not been achieved. The LR can be a distinct chapter or included in different sections; it can be part of the introduction chapter, part of each research topic, or part of each published paper ( 7 ). However, scholars view the LR as an integral part of the main body of an academic work because it is intrinsically connected to other sections ( Figure 1 ) and is frequently present. The structure of the LR depends on the conventions of a particular discipline, the rules of the department, and the student’s and supervisor’s areas of expertise, needs and interests.

Interestingly, many postgraduate students choose to submit their LR to peer-reviewed journals. As LRs are critical evaluations of current knowledge, they are indeed publishable material, even in the form of narrative or systematic reviews. However, systematic reviews have specific patterns 1 ( 8 ) that may not entirely fit with the questions posed in the dissertation/thesis. Additionally, the scope of a systematic review may be too narrow, and the strict criteria for study inclusion may omit important information from the dissertation/thesis. Therefore, this essay discusses the definition of an LR is and methods to develop an LR in the context of an academic dissertation/thesis. Finally, we suggest a checklist to evaluate an LR.

WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW IN A THESIS?

Conducting research and writing a dissertation/thesis translates rational thinking and enthusiasm ( 9 ). While a strong body of literature that instructs students on research methodology, data analysis and writing scientific papers exists, little guidance on performing LRs is available. The LR is a unique opportunity to assess and contrast various arguments and theories, not just summarize them. The research results should not be discussed within the LR, but the postgraduate student tends to write a comprehensive LR while reflecting on his or her own findings ( 10 ).

Many people believe that writing an LR is a lonely and linear process. Supervisors or the institutions assume that the Ph.D. student has mastered the relevant techniques and vocabulary associated with his/her subject and conducts a self-reflection about previously published findings. Indeed, while elaborating the LR, the student should aggregate diverse skills, which mainly rely on his/her own commitment to mastering them. Thus, less supervision should be required ( 11 ). However, the parameters described above might not currently be the case for many students ( 11 , 12 ), and the lack of formal and systematic training on writing LRs is an important concern ( 11 ).

An institutional environment devoted to active learning will provide students the opportunity to continuously reflect on LRs, which will form a dialogue between the postgraduate student and the current literature in a particular field ( 13 ). Postgraduate students will be interpreting studies by other researchers, and, according to Hart (1998) ( 3 ), the outcomes of the LR in a dissertation/thesis include the following:

• To identify what research has been performed and what topics require further investigation in a particular field of knowledge;
• To determine the context of the problem;
• To recognize the main methodologies and techniques that have been used in the past;
• To place the current research project within the historical, methodological and theoretical context of a particular field;
• To identify significant aspects of the topic;
• To elucidate the implications of the topic;
• To offer an alternative perspective;
• To discern how the studied subject is structured;
• To improve the student’s subject vocabulary in a particular field; and
• To characterize the links between theory and practice.

A sound LR translates the postgraduate student’s expertise in academic and scientific writing: it expresses his/her level of comfort with synthesizing ideas ( 11 ). The LR reveals how well the postgraduate student has proceeded in three domains: an effective literature search, the language domain, and critical writing.

Effective literature search

All students should be trained in gathering appropriate data for specific purposes, and information literacy skills are a cornerstone. These skills are defined as “an individual’s ability to know when they need information, to identify information that can help them address the issue or problem at hand, and to locate, evaluate, and use that information effectively” ( 14 ). Librarian support is of vital importance in coaching the appropriate use of Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT) and other tools for highly efficient literature searches (e.g., quotation marks and truncation), as is the appropriate management of electronic databases.

Language domain

Academic writing must be concise and precise: unnecessary words distract the reader from the essential content ( 15 ). In this context, reading about issues distant from the research topic ( 16 ) may increase students’ general vocabulary and familiarity with grammar. Ultimately, reading diverse materials facilitates and encourages the writing process itself.

Critical writing

Critical judgment includes critical reading, thinking and writing. It supposes a student’s analytical reflection about what he/she has read. The student should delineate the basic elements of the topic, characterize the most relevant claims, identify relationships, and finally contrast those relationships ( 17 ). Each scientific document highlights the perspective of the author, and students will become more confident in judging the supporting evidence and underlying premises of a study and constructing their own counterargument as they read more articles. A paucity of integration or contradictory perspectives indicates lower levels of cognitive complexity ( 12 ).

Thus, while elaborating an LR, the postgraduate student should achieve the highest category of Bloom’s cognitive skills: evaluation ( 12 ). The writer should not only summarize data and understand each topic but also be able to make judgments based on objective criteria, compare resources and findings, identify discrepancies due to methodology, and construct his/her own argument ( 12 ). As a result, the student will be sufficiently confident to show his/her own voice .

Writing a consistent LR is an intense and complex activity that reveals the training and long-lasting academic skills of a writer. It is not a lonely or linear process. However, students are unlikely to be prepared to write an LR if they have not mastered the aforementioned domains ( 10 ). An institutional environment that supports student learning is crucial.

Different institutions employ distinct methods to promote students’ learning processes. First, many universities propose modules to develop behind the scenes activities that enhance self-reflection about general skills (e.g., the skills we have mastered and the skills we need to develop further), behaviors that should be incorporated (e.g., self-criticism about one’s own thoughts), and each student’s role in the advancement of his/her field. Lectures or workshops about LRs themselves are useful because they describe the purposes of the LR and how it fits into the whole picture of a student’s work. These activities may explain what type of discussion an LR must involve, the importance of defining the correct scope, the reasons to include a particular resource, and the main role of critical reading.

Some pedagogic services that promote a continuous improvement in study and academic skills are equally important. Examples include workshops about time management, the accomplishment of personal objectives, active learning, and foreign languages for nonnative speakers. Additionally, opportunities to converse with other students promotes an awareness of others’ experiences and difficulties. Ultimately, the supervisor’s role in providing feedback and setting deadlines is crucial in developing students’ abilities and in strengthening students’ writing quality ( 12 ).

HOW SHOULD A LITERATURE REVIEW BE DEVELOPED?

A consensus on the appropriate method for elaborating an LR is not available, but four main steps are generally accepted: defining the main topic, searching the literature, analyzing the results, and writing ( 6 ). We suggest a fifth step: reflecting on the information that has been written in previous publications ( Figure 2 ).

First step: Defining the main topic

Planning an LR is directly linked to the research main question of the thesis and occurs in parallel to students’ training in the three domains discussed above. The planning stage helps organize ideas, delimit the scope of the LR ( 11 ), and avoid the wasting of time in the process. Planning includes the following steps:

• Reflecting on the scope of the LR: postgraduate students will have assumptions about what material must be addressed and what information is not essential to an LR ( 13 , 18 ). Cooper’s Taxonomy of Literature Reviews 2 systematizes the writing process through six characteristics and nonmutually exclusive categories. The focus refers to the reviewer’s most important points of interest, while the goals concern what students want to achieve with the LR. The perspective assumes answers to the student’s own view of the LR and how he/she presents a particular issue. The coverage defines how comprehensive the student is in presenting the literature, and the organization determines the sequence of arguments. The audience is defined as the group for whom the LR is written.
• Designating sections and subsections: Headings and subheadings should be specific, explanatory and have a coherent sequence throughout the text ( 4 ). They simulate an inverted pyramid, with an increasing level of reflection and depth of argument.
• Identifying keywords: The relevant keywords for each LR section should be listed to guide the literature search. This list should mirror what Hart (1998) ( 3 ) advocates as subject vocabulary . The keywords will also be useful when the student is writing the LR since they guide the reader through the text.
• Delineating the time interval and language of documents to be retrieved in the second step. The most recently published documents should be considered, but relevant texts published before a predefined cutoff year can be included if they are classic documents in that field. Extra care should be employed when translating documents.

Second step: Searching the literature

The ability to gather adequate information from the literature must be addressed in postgraduate programs. Librarian support is important, particularly for accessing difficult texts. This step comprises the following components:

• Searching the literature itself: This process consists of defining which databases (electronic or dissertation/thesis repositories), official documents, and books will be searched and then actively conducting the search. Information literacy skills have a central role in this stage. While searching electronic databases, controlled vocabulary (e.g., Medical Subject Headings, or MeSH, for the PubMed database) or specific standardized syntax rules may need to be applied.

In addition, two other approaches are suggested. First, a review of the reference list of each document might be useful for identifying relevant publications to be included and important opinions to be assessed. This step is also relevant for referencing the original studies and leading authors in that field. Moreover, students can directly contact the experts on a particular topic to consult with them regarding their experience or use them as a source of additional unpublished documents.

Before submitting a dissertation/thesis, the electronic search strategy should be repeated. This process will ensure that the most recently published papers will be considered in the LR.

• Selecting documents for inclusion: Generally, the most recent literature will be included in the form of published peer-reviewed papers. Assess books and unpublished material, such as conference abstracts, academic texts and government reports, are also important to assess since the gray literature also offers valuable information. However, since these materials are not peer-reviewed, we recommend that they are carefully added to the LR.

This task is an important exercise in time management. First, students should read the title and abstract to understand whether that document suits their purposes, addresses the research question, and helps develop the topic of interest. Then, they should scan the full text, determine how it is structured, group it with similar documents, and verify whether other arguments might be considered ( 5 ).

Third step: Analyzing the results

Critical reading and thinking skills are important in this step. This step consists of the following components:

• Reading documents: The student may read various texts in depth according to LR sections and subsections ( defining the main topic ), which is not a passive activity ( 1 ). Some questions should be asked to practice critical analysis skills, as listed below. Is the research question evident and articulated with previous knowledge? What are the authors’ research goals and theoretical orientations, and how do they interact? Are the authors’ claims related to other scholars’ research? Do the authors consider different perspectives? Was the research project designed and conducted properly? Are the results and discussion plausible, and are they consistent with the research objectives and methodology? What are the strengths and limitations of this work? How do the authors support their findings? How does this work contribute to the current research topic? ( 1 , 19 )
• Taking notes: Students who systematically take notes on each document are more readily able to establish similarities or differences with other documents and to highlight personal observations. This approach reinforces the student’s ideas about the next step and helps develop his/her own academic voice ( 1 , 13 ). Voice recognition software ( 16 ), mind maps ( 5 ), flowcharts, tables, spreadsheets, personal comments on the referenced texts, and note-taking apps are all available tools for managing these observations, and the student him/herself should use the tool that best improves his/her learning. Additionally, when a student is considering submitting an LR to a peer-reviewed journal, notes should be taken on the activities performed in all five steps to ensure that they are able to be replicated.

Fourth step: Writing

The recognition of when a student is able and ready to write after a sufficient period of reading and thinking is likely a difficult task. Some students can produce a review in a single long work session. However, as discussed above, writing is not a linear process, and students do not need to write LRs according to a specific sequence of sections. Writing an LR is a time-consuming task, and some scholars believe that a period of at least six months is sufficient ( 6 ). An LR, and academic writing in general, expresses the writer’s proper thoughts, conclusions about others’ work ( 6 , 10 , 13 , 16 ), and decisions about methods to progress in the chosen field of knowledge. Thus, each student is expected to present a different learning and writing trajectory.

In this step, writing methods should be considered; then, editing, citing and correct referencing should complete this stage, at least temporarily. Freewriting techniques may be a good starting point for brainstorming ideas and improving the understanding of the information that has been read ( 1 ). Students should consider the following parameters when creating an agenda for writing the LR: two-hour writing blocks (at minimum), with prespecified tasks that are possible to complete in one section; short (minutes) and long breaks (days or weeks) to allow sufficient time for mental rest and reflection; and short- and long-term goals to motivate the writing itself ( 20 ). With increasing experience, this scheme can vary widely, and it is not a straightforward rule. Importantly, each discipline has a different way of writing ( 1 ), and each department has its own preferred styles for citations and references.

Fifth step: Reflecting on the writing

In this step, the postgraduate student should ask him/herself the same questions as in the analyzing the results step, which can take more time than anticipated. Ambiguities, repeated ideas, and a lack of coherence may not be noted when the student is immersed in the writing task for long periods. The whole effort will likely be a work in progress, and continuous refinements in the written material will occur once the writing process has begun.

LITERATURE REVIEW CHECKLIST

In contrast to review papers, the LR of a dissertation/thesis should not be a standalone piece or work. Instead, it should present the student as a scholar and should maintain the interest of the audience in how that dissertation/thesis will provide solutions for the current gaps in a particular field.

A checklist for evaluating an LR is convenient for students’ continuous academic development and research transparency: it clearly states the desired achievements for the LR of a dissertation/thesis. Here, we present an LR checklist developed from an LR scoring rubric ( 11 ). For a critical analysis of an LR, we maintain the five categories but offer twelve criteria that are not scaled ( Figure 3 ). The criteria all have the same importance and are not mutually exclusive.

First category: Coverage

1. justified criteria exist for the inclusion and exclusion of literature in the review.

This criterion builds on the main topic and areas covered by the LR ( 18 ). While experts may be confident in retrieving and selecting literature, postgraduate students must convince their audience about the adequacy of their search strategy and their reasons for intentionally selecting what material to cover ( 11 ). References from different fields of knowledge provide distinct perspective, but narrowing the scope of coverage may be important in areas with a large body of existing knowledge.

Second category: Synthesis

2. a critical examination of the state of the field exists.

A critical examination is an assessment of distinct aspects in the field ( 1 ) along with a constructive argument. It is not a negative critique but an expression of the student’s understanding of how other scholars have added to the topic ( 1 ), and the student should analyze and contextualize contradictory statements. A writer’s personal bias (beliefs or political involvement) have been shown to influence the structure and writing of a document; therefore, the cultural and paradigmatic background guide how the theories are revised and presented ( 13 ). However, an honest judgment is important when considering different perspectives.

3. The topic or problem is clearly placed in the context of the broader scholarly literature

The broader scholarly literature should be related to the chosen main topic for the LR ( how to develop the literature review section). The LR can cover the literature from one or more disciplines, depending on its scope, but it should always offer a new perspective. In addition, students should be careful in citing and referencing previous publications. As a rule, original studies and primary references should generally be included. Systematic and narrative reviews present summarized data, and it may be important to cite them, particularly for issues that should be understood but do not require a detailed description. Similarly, quotations highlight the exact statement from another publication. However, excessive referencing may disclose lower levels of analysis and synthesis by the student.

4. The LR is critically placed in the historical context of the field

Situating the LR in its historical context shows the level of comfort of the student in addressing a particular topic. Instead of only presenting statements and theories in a temporal approach, which occasionally follows a linear timeline, the LR should authentically characterize the student’s academic work in the state-of-art techniques in their particular field of knowledge. Thus, the LR should reinforce why the dissertation/thesis represents original work in the chosen research field.

5. Ambiguities in definitions are considered and resolved

Distinct theories on the same topic may exist in different disciplines, and one discipline may consider multiple concepts to explain one topic. These misunderstandings should be addressed and contemplated. The LR should not synthesize all theories or concepts at the same time. Although this approach might demonstrate in-depth reading on a particular topic, it can reveal a student’s inability to comprehend and synthesize his/her research problem.

6. Important variables and phenomena relevant to the topic are articulated

The LR is a unique opportunity to articulate ideas and arguments and to purpose new relationships between them ( 10 , 11 ). More importantly, a sound LR will outline to the audience how these important variables and phenomena will be addressed in the current academic work. Indeed, the LR should build a bidirectional link with the remaining sections and ground the connections between all of the sections ( Figure 1 ).

7. A synthesized new perspective on the literature has been established

The LR is a ‘creative inquiry’ ( 13 ) in which the student elaborates his/her own discourse, builds on previous knowledge in the field, and describes his/her own perspective while interpreting others’ work ( 13 , 17 ). Thus, students should articulate the current knowledge, not accept the results at face value ( 11 , 13 , 17 ), and improve their own cognitive abilities ( 12 ).

Third category: Methodology

8. the main methodologies and research techniques that have been used in the field are identified and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed.

The LR is expected to distinguish the research that has been completed from investigations that remain to be performed, address the benefits and limitations of the main methods applied to date, and consider the strategies for addressing the expected limitations described above. While placing his/her research within the methodological context of a particular topic, the LR will justify the methodology of the study and substantiate the student’s interpretations.

9. Ideas and theories in the field are related to research methodologies

The audience expects the writer to analyze and synthesize methodological approaches in the field. The findings should be explained according to the strengths and limitations of previous research methods, and students must avoid interpretations that are not supported by the analyzed literature. This criterion translates to the student’s comprehension of the applicability and types of answers provided by different research methodologies, even those using a quantitative or qualitative research approach.

Fourth category: Significance

10. the scholarly significance of the research problem is rationalized.

The LR is an introductory section of a dissertation/thesis and will present the postgraduate student as a scholar in a particular field ( 11 ). Therefore, the LR should discuss how the research problem is currently addressed in the discipline being investigated or in different disciplines, depending on the scope of the LR. The LR explains the academic paradigms in the topic of interest ( 13 ) and methods to advance the field from these starting points. However, an excess number of personal citations—whether referencing the student’s research or studies by his/her research team—may reflect a narrow literature search and a lack of comprehensive synthesis of ideas and arguments.

11. The practical significance of the research problem is rationalized

The practical significance indicates a student’s comprehensive understanding of research terminology (e.g., risk versus associated factor), methodology (e.g., efficacy versus effectiveness) and plausible interpretations in the context of the field. Notably, the academic argument about a topic may not always reflect the debate in real life terms. For example, using a quantitative approach in epidemiology, statistically significant differences between groups do not explain all of the factors involved in a particular problem ( 21 ). Therefore, excessive faith in p -values may reflect lower levels of critical evaluation of the context and implications of a research problem by the student.

Fifth category: Rhetoric

12. the lr was written with a coherent, clear structure that supported the review.

This category strictly relates to the language domain: the text should be coherent and presented in a logical sequence, regardless of which organizational ( 18 ) approach is chosen. The beginning of each section/subsection should state what themes will be addressed, paragraphs should be carefully linked to each other ( 10 ), and the first sentence of each paragraph should generally summarize the content. Additionally, the student’s statements are clear, sound, and linked to other scholars’ works, and precise and concise language that follows standardized writing conventions (e.g., in terms of active/passive voice and verb tenses) is used. Attention to grammar, such as orthography and punctuation, indicates prudence and supports a robust dissertation/thesis. Ultimately, all of these strategies provide fluency and consistency for the text.

Although the scoring rubric was initially proposed for postgraduate programs in education research, we are convinced that this checklist is a valuable tool for all academic areas. It enables the monitoring of students’ learning curves and a concentrated effort on any criteria that are not yet achieved. For institutions, the checklist is a guide to support supervisors’ feedback, improve students’ writing skills, and highlight the learning goals of each program. These criteria do not form a linear sequence, but ideally, all twelve achievements should be perceived in the LR.

CONCLUSIONS

A single correct method to classify, evaluate and guide the elaboration of an LR has not been established. In this essay, we have suggested directions for planning, structuring and critically evaluating an LR. The planning of the scope of an LR and approaches to complete it is a valuable effort, and the five steps represent a rational starting point. An institutional environment devoted to active learning will support students in continuously reflecting on LRs, which will form a dialogue between the writer and the current literature in a particular field ( 13 ).

The completion of an LR is a challenging and necessary process for understanding one’s own field of expertise. Knowledge is always transitory, but our responsibility as scholars is to provide a critical contribution to our field, allowing others to think through our work. Good researchers are grounded in sophisticated LRs, which reveal a writer’s training and long-lasting academic skills. We recommend using the LR checklist as a tool for strengthening the skills necessary for critical academic writing.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Leite DFB has initially conceived the idea and has written the first draft of this review. Padilha MAS and Cecatti JG have supervised data interpretation and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read the draft and agreed with this submission. Authors are responsible for all aspects of this academic piece.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to all of the professors of the ‘Getting Started with Graduate Research and Generic Skills’ module at University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, for suggesting and supporting this article. Funding: DFBL has granted scholarship from Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) to take part of her Ph.D. studies in Ireland (process number 88881.134512/2016-01). There is no participation from sponsors on authors’ decision to write or to submit this manuscript.

No potential conflict of interest was reported.

1 The questions posed in systematic reviews usually follow the ‘PICOS’ acronym: Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, Study design.

2 In 1988, Cooper proposed a taxonomy that aims to facilitate students’ and institutions’ understanding of literature reviews. Six characteristics with specific categories are briefly described: Focus: research outcomes, research methodologies, theories, or practices and applications; Goals: integration (generalization, conflict resolution, and linguistic bridge-building), criticism, or identification of central issues; Perspective: neutral representation or espousal of a position; Coverage: exhaustive, exhaustive with selective citations, representative, central or pivotal; Organization: historical, conceptual, or methodological; and Audience: specialized scholars, general scholars, practitioners or policymakers, or the general public.

• Tools and Resources
• Customer Services
• Applied Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Biological Anthropology
• Histories of Anthropology
• International and Indigenous Anthropology
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Sociocultural Anthropology
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Article contents

Literature and anthropology.

• Andrew Brandel Andrew Brandel Harvard University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.85
• Published online: 30 April 2020

Literature is often understood to be one of anthropology’s most recurrent and provocative companions in thought. The relationship between the two has taken a number of different and variously interrelated forms. Perhaps the most familiar of these is the theorization of the anthropologist’s status as a writer; this work tends to take its cue from certain strands of postmodernism and invokes literary techniques as tools through which to address concerns around representation and the evocation of lived experience. A second important, if often overlooked, area of research involves the study of concrete literary practices including reading, writing, performing, sharing, and listening, whether by means of ethnographic fieldwork or anthropological modes of textual analysis. Finally, there are the myriad relationships that anthropologists have maintained with particular literary figures or texts, which have proven essential to their thinking and to their lives.

• textual studies
• ethnography
• reading and writing practices
• storytelling

You do not currently have access to this article

Please login to access the full content.

Access to the full content requires a subscription

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Anthropology. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 29 August 2024

• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility
• [185.147.128.134]
• 185.147.128.134

Character limit 500 /500

• Subject List
• Take a Tour
• For Authors
• Subscriber Services
• Publications
• African American Studies
• African Studies
• American Literature

Anthropology

• Architecture Planning and Preservation
• Art History
• Atlantic History
• Biblical Studies
• British and Irish Literature
• Childhood Studies
• Chinese Studies
• Cinema and Media Studies
• Communication
• Criminology
• Environmental Science
• Evolutionary Biology
• International Law
• International Relations
• Islamic Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Latino Studies
• Linguistics
• Literary and Critical Theory
• Medieval Studies
• Military History
• Political Science
• Public Health
• Renaissance and Reformation
• Social Work
• Urban Studies
• Victorian Literature
• Browse All Subjects

How to Subscribe

• Free Trials

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Literary Anthropology

Introduction.

• The Writing Culture Debate
• Writing Experiments
• Critique of “Writing Culture” and Commentary
• Orality and Literacy
• Code and Translation
• Mythic Forms
• Rhetoric and Performance
• The Social History of Genre
• Poiesis and Creativity
• Biography and Autobiography
• Consciousness
• Evidence and Ethos

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

About related articles close popup.

Lorem Ipsum Sit Dolor Amet

Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Aliquam ligula odio, euismod ut aliquam et, vestibulum nec risus. Nulla viverra, arcu et iaculis consequat, justo diam ornare tellus, semper ultrices tellus nunc eu tellus.

• Clifford Geertz
• Humanistic Anthropology
• Interpretive Anthropology
• Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity
• Language Ideology
• Narrative in Sociocultural Studies of Language
• Writing Culture
• Zora Neale Hurston

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming articles expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section.

• Landscape Archaeology
• Medical Activism
• Transhumance
• Find more forthcoming articles...
• Export Citations
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Literary Anthropology by Nigel Rapport LAST REVIEWED: 11 January 2012 LAST MODIFIED: 11 January 2012 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0067

The field of “literary anthropology” actually covers two fields of study. The first is an exploration of the role that literature plays in social life and individual experience, in particular social, cultural, and historical settings. Included in this study is the question of what “literature” is. Literary anthropology can be understood here as an exploration of different kinds of genre of expression, and how these genres can be said to have a historical specificity, a cultural evaluation, and a social institutionalism attached to them. The anthropologist might examine literature as the oral recounting and exchange of myth among 20th-century Amazonian hunter-gatherers, or the focus might be on the establishment of printed daily newspapers in Hungary and its links to the 19th-century rise of Hungarian nationalism. Secondly, literary anthropology is a study of the nature of anthropology itself as a discipline. What role does writing play in the processes of accruing anthropological knowledge? What is the history of the relationship between anthropology and particular kinds of writing? Should exponents be happy to proceed with this historical tradition or is it appropriate that anthropology now reimagine itself in terms of different kinds of expression—visual, audible, sensory—or different kinds of literary genre: fictional or poetic or dialogic? It can be seen that these two fields of study—the first, more traditional approach and the latter “literary turn” to the very nature of knowing and representation—are not discrete. In asking what kinds of expression it should adopt for getting to know its research subject and for disseminating the results of its research, anthropology is also considering the role of literary and other forms of expression to do work—to make sense—at particular historical, social-structural, political, and personal moments. Literary anthropology has thus been a focus of growing anthropological concern for the way in which it throws light on the entire complex of the human social condition, including the role of narrative in consciousness, the nature of creativity in social life, and the way in which anthropology might do justice to evidencing the subjectivity of experience.

The Literary Turn

In a key text, Geertz 1988 , Clifford Geertz suggested that writings by some of anthropology’s past grand masters bore a distinct authorial signature, a writerly identity. Albeit that anthropological texts purported, or at least aimed, at simply presenting a true and detached view of the world, they did not come from nowhere, and they did not give onto an unbiased reality: inevitably they represented historico-socio-cultural documents. Indeed, the very claim to truth represented a particular rhetoric, a narrative and stylistic technique, which served to obscure the links between those representations, the “knowledge” they constructed, the relations of power they embodied, and the interests they furthered. Geertz’s work was evidence of a difficulty that was seen to be emerging concerning the whys and wherefores of the act of representing “others.” What had once been an unproblematic process and relationship became “the subject”—for some “the crisis”—of anthropology as such. “The literary turn,” most broadly, can be understood as anthropology turning its attention to its own processes of inscription. Was not anthropology part of its own local and national literary traditions? (See Boon 1972 .) Far from analytic and scientific, were not anthropological concepts such as “culture” and “society” part of their own “folk tradition” ( Wagner 1975 )? Opinion was divided, however, on the question of what recognition of the literariness intrinsic to anthropology should amount to. For some there was now a lack of persuasiveness in anthropology’s traditional claim to explain others by going “there” and sorting strange facts into familiar categories for perusal “here” ( Strathern 1987 ). For others, talk of a moral and epistemological gap—of words being inadequate to experience and of Western words being a continuation of asymmetrical power relations laid down during contexts of colonialism—was an irresponsible affectation, leading to a dereliction of scientific duty to know and improve the human condition ( Gellner 1992 ). For still others, the literary turn represented an opportunity for reassessing the possibilities of fine anthropological writing ( Campbell 1989 ), for substantiating the universality of the literary endeavor ( Hymes 1973 ), or for examining universal creative processes and the ubiquity of “writing social reality” ( Rapport 1994 ).

Boon, James. 1972. From symbolism to structuralism: Lévi-Strauss in a literary tradition . New York: Harper & Row.

An examination of how French structural anthropology (Lévi-Strauss’s work in particular) belongs to a French literary tradition that includes the symbolist writings of Mallarme, Rimbaud, and Huysmans. Is not an experiencing of another culture equivalent to experiencing a literary text? Both are bodies of systematized data conveying information.

Campbell, Alan Tormaid. 1989. To square with Genesis: Causal statements and shamanic ideas in Wayapi . Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.

Posits the claim that “barbarous writing is bad work,” and that literary borrowings, thus far sporadic and ad hoc in anthropology, must be extended to the point that the degeneracies of the current disciplinary diction are overcome (and “borrowings” are no longer recognized as such at all).

Geertz, Clifford. 1988. Works and lives: The anthropologist as author . Cambridge, UK: Polity.

An analysis of the writings of four prominent anthropologists—Malinowski, Benedict, Evans-Pritchard, and Lévi-Strauss—to argue that authorship is necessarily an imparting of an identity and a personal signature to texts. Anthropological writings are fictions—things fashioned and made—though not thereby unfactual.

Gellner, Ernest. 1992. Postmodernism, reason and religion . London: Routledge.

DOI: 10.4324/9780203410431

Three positions on truth compete for our intellectual affiliation: religious faith, relativism, and enlightenment rationalism. Only rationalism takes truth seriously. Current “postmodern” anthropology is relativist, mistakenly indulging in subjectivism as a form of expiation for the supposed sins of colonialism—here is truth used as a kind of cultural decoration.

Hymes, Dell. 1973. An ethnographic perspective. In Special issue: What is literature? New Literary History 5.1: 431–457.

In the context of a study of North American Indian literary traditions, it is argued that “literature” is universal. Ethnography and literary criticism must surely be seen as indispensable to each other, mutually contributing to what is at base the same enterprise of cultural interpretation.

Rapport, Nigel. 1994. The prose and the passion: Anthropology, literature, and the writing of E. M. Forster . Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press.

An overview of the historical relationship between anthropology and literature, and an argument for its reassessment. Sharing an ethos and an epistemology, anthropological field data and literary characterization can be read “through” one another, throwing new light on creativity, authorship, reflexivity and irony, and the nature of disciplines and genres.

Strathern, Marilyn. 1987. Out of context: The persuasive fictions of anthropology. Current Anthropology 28.3: 251–281.

DOI: 10.1086/203527

The history of anthropology is a history of the routinization of particular relations between writers and readers of ethnographies. Now anthropology finds itself in a new “aesthetic”: the single sociocultural observer is no longer an image of authenticity, nor is the one culture or society a valid object of study.

Wagner, Roy. 1975. The invention of culture . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Argues for a recognition of how anthropologists invent “a culture” for their informants: the imagination of a plausible explanation of what they understand their research subjects generally to have been doing. The “invention of culture” is an example of the universal “symbolization processes” by which human beings construct original meaning.

back to top

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login .

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here .

• About Anthropology »
• Meet the Editorial Board »
• Africa, Anthropology of
• Agriculture
• Animal Cultures
• Animal Ritual
• Animal Sanctuaries
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Anthropocene, The
• Anthropological Activism and Visual Ethnography
• Anthropology and Education
• Anthropology and Theology
• Anthropology of Islam
• Anthropology of Kurdistan
• Anthropology of the Senses
• Anthrozoology
• Antiquity, Ethnography in
• Applied Anthropology
• Archaeobotany
• Archaeological Education
• Archaeologies of Sexuality
• Archaeology
• Archaeology and Museums
• Archaeology and Political Evolution
• Archaeology and Race
• Archaeology and the Body
• Archaeology, Gender and
• Archaeology, Global
• Archaeology, Historical
• Archaeology, Indigenous
• Archaeology of Childhood
• Archaeology of the Senses
• Art Museums
• Art/Aesthetics
• Autoethnography
• Bakhtin, Mikhail
• Bass, William M.
• Benedict, Ruth
• Binford, Lewis
• Bioarchaeology
• Biocultural Anthropology
• Biological and Physical Anthropology
• Biological Citizenship
• Boas, Franz
• Bone Histology
• Bureaucracy
• Business Anthropology
• Cargo Cults
• Charles Sanders Peirce and Anthropological Theory
• Christianity, Anthropology of
• Citizenship
• Class, Archaeology and
• Clinical Trials
• Cobb, William Montague
• Code-switching and Multilingualism
• Cognitive Anthropology
• Cole, Johnnetta
• Colonialism
• Commodities
• Consumerism
• Crapanzano, Vincent
• Cultural Heritage Presentation and Interpretation
• Cultural Heritage, Race and
• Cultural Materialism
• Cultural Relativism
• Cultural Resource Management
• Culture and Personality
• Culture, Popular
• Curatorship
• Cyber-Archaeology
• Dalit Studies
• Dance Ethnography
• de Heusch, Luc
• Deaccessioning
• Design, Anthropology and
• Digital Anthropology
• Disability and Deaf Studies and Anthropology
• Douglas, Mary
• Drake, St. Clair
• Durkheim and the Anthropology of Religion
• Economic Anthropology
• Embodied/Virtual Environments
• Emotion, Anthropology of
• Environmental Anthropology
• Environmental Justice and Indigeneity
• Ethnoarchaeology
• Ethnocentrism
• Ethnographic Documentary Production
• Ethnographic Films from Iran
• Ethnography
• Ethnography Apps and Games
• Ethnohistory and Historical Ethnography
• Ethnomusicology
• Ethnoscience
• Evans-Pritchard, E. E.
• Evolution, Cultural
• Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology
• Evolutionary Theory
• Experimental Archaeology
• Federal Indian Law
• Feminist Anthropology
• Film, Ethnographic
• Forensic Anthropology
• Francophonie
• Frazer, Sir James George
• Geertz, Clifford
• Gender and Religion
• GIS and Archaeology
• Global Health
• Globalization
• Gluckman, Max
• Graphic Anthropology
• Haraway, Donna
• Healing and Religion
• Health and Social Stratification
• Health Policy, Anthropology of
• Heritage Language
• House Museums
• Human Adaptability
• Human Evolution
• Human Rights
• Human Rights Films
• Hurston, Zora Neale
• Identity Politics
• India, Masculinity, Identity
• Indigeneity
• Indigenous Boarding School Experiences
• Indigenous Economic Development
• Indigenous Media: Currents of Engagement
• Industrial Archaeology
• Institutions
• Laboratories
• Language and Emotion
• Language and Law
• Language and Media
• Language and Race
• Language and Urban Place
• Language Contact and its Sociocultural Contexts, Anthropol...
• Language Socialization
• Leakey, Louis
• Legal Anthropology
• Legal Pluralism
• Levantine Archaeology
• Liberalism, Anthropology of
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Relativity
• Linguistics, Historical
• Literary Anthropology
• Local Biologies
• Lévi-Strauss, Claude
• Malinowski, Bronisław
• Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Visual Anthropology
• Maritime Archaeology
• Material Culture
• Materiality
• Mathematical Anthropology
• Matriarchal Studies
• Mead, Margaret
• Media Anthropology
• Medical Anthropology
• Medical Technology and Technique
• Mediterranean
• Mendel, Gregor
• Mental Health and Illness
• Mesoamerican Archaeology
• Mexican Migration to the United States
• Militarism, Anthropology and
• Missionization
• Morgan, Lewis Henry
• Multimodal Ethnography
• Multispecies Ethnography
• Museum Anthropology
• Museum Education
• Museum Studies
• NAGPRA and Repatriation of Native American Human Remains a...
• Nationalism
• Needham, Rodney
• Neoliberalism
• NGOs, Anthropology of
• Niche Construction
• Northwest Coast, The
• Oceania, Archaeology of
• Paleolithic Art
• Paleontology
• Performance Studies
• Performativity
• Perspectivism
• Philosophy of Museums
• Plantations
• Political Anthropology
• Postprocessual Archaeology
• Postsocialism
• Poverty, Culture of
• Primatology
• Primitivism and Race in Ethnographic Film: A Decolonial Re...
• Processual Archaeology
• Psycholinguistics
• Psychological Anthropology
• Public Archaeology
• Public Sociocultural Anthropologies
• Religion and Post-Socialism
• Religious Conversion
• Repatriation
• Reproductive and Maternal Health in Anthropology
• Reproductive Technologies
• Rhetoric Culture Theory
• Rural Anthropology
• Sahlins, Marshall
• Sapir, Edward
• Scandinavia
• Science Studies
• Secularization
• Settler Colonialism
• Sex Estimation
• Sign Language
• Skeletal Age Estimation
• Social Anthropology (British Tradition)
• Social Movements
• Socialization
• Society for Visual Anthropology, History of
• Socio-Cultural Approaches to the Anthropology of Reproduct...
• Sociolinguistics
• Sound Ethnography
• Space and Place
• Stable Isotopes
• Stan Brakhage and Ethnographic Praxis
• Structuralism
• Studying Up
• Sub-Saharan Africa, Democracy in
• Surrealism and Anthropology
• Technological Organization
• Trans Studies in Anthroplogy
• Transnationalism
• Tree-Ring Dating
• Turner, Edith L. B.
• Turner, Victor
• University Museums
• Urban Anthropology
• Virtual Ethnography
• Visual Anthropology
• Whorfian Hypothesis
• Willey, Gordon
• Wolf, Eric R.
• Youth Culture
• Zora Neale Hurston and Visual Anthropology
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility

Powered by:

• [185.147.128.134]
• 185.147.128.134

• A-Z Publications

Annual Review of Anthropology

Volume 47, 2018, review article, literature and reading.

• Adam Reed 1
• View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: Department of Social Anthropology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, Scotland, United Kingdom; email: [email protected]
• Vol. 47:33-45 (Volume publication date October 2018) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050223
• Copyright © 2018 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

This article examines anthropological approaches to fiction reading. It asks why the field of literary anthropology remains largely disinvested of ethnographic work on literary cultures and how that field might approach the study of literature and reading ethnographically. The issue of the creative agency of fiction readers is explored in the context of what it means to ask anthropological questions of literature, which includes the challenge of speaking back to dominant approaches grounded in forms of critical analysis. Finally, the article looks to recent work in the anthropology of Christianity on Bible reading and engagements with biblical characters to open up new questions about the relationship between fiction reading and temporal regimes.

Article metrics loading...

Full text loading...

Literature Cited

• Abu-Lughod L. 2000 . Veiled Sentiments: Honour and Poetry in a Bedouin Society Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
• Asad T. 1990 . Ethnography, literature, and politics: some readings and uses of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Cult . Anthropol 5 : 3 239– 69 [Google Scholar]
• Badia J , Phegley J 2005 . Reading Women: Literary Figures and Cultural Icons from the Victorian Age to the Present Toronto: Univ. Tor. Press [Google Scholar]
• Barber K 2006 . Africa's Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Barber K. 2007 . The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics: Oral and Written Culture in African and Beyond Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Bielo JS. 2009 . Words Upon the Word: An Ethnography of Evangelical Group Bible Study New York: N. Y. Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Benson P 1993 . Anthropology and Literature Chicago: Univ. Ill. Press [Google Scholar]
• Birkerts S. 1996 . The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age London: Faber & Faber [Google Scholar]
• Bleich D. 1986 . Gender interests in reading and language. See Flynn & Schweickart 1986 234– 66
• Boyarin D. 1993 . Placing reading: Ancient Israel and Medieval Europe. See J Boyarin 1993 10– 37
• Boyarin J 1993 . The Ethnography of Reading Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
• Brandel A 2016 . City of letters: the making of literary life in Berlin . PhD Diss., Dep. Anthropol., Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD
• Brandel A. 2018 . A poet in the field: the companionship of literature and anthropology. Anthropol. Century 2018 : 21 http://aotcpress.com/articles/a-poet-in-the-field/ [Google Scholar]
• Caton SC. 2006 . Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Meditation New York: Hill & Wang [Google Scholar]
• Chartier R. 1994 . The Order of Books: Readers, Authors, and Libraries in Europe between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries Cambridge, UK: Polity Press [Google Scholar]
• Clifford J. 1988 . The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature and Art Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Clifford J , Marcus G 1986 . Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
• Cohen M 2013 . Novel Approaches to Anthropology: Contributions to Literary Anthropology New York: Lexington Books [Google Scholar]
• Collinson I. 2009 . Everyday Readers: Reading and Popular Culture London: Equinox [Google Scholar]
• Crapanzano V. 2000 . Serving the Word: Literalism in America From the Pulpit to the Bench New York: New Press [Google Scholar]
• Daniel EV , Peck J 1996 . Culture/Contexture: Explorations in Anthropology and Literary Studies Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
• Darnton R. 1990 . The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History London: Faber and Faber [Google Scholar]
• Daswani G. 2015 . Looking Back, Moving Forward: Transformation and Ethical Practice in the Ghanaian Church of Pentecost Toronto: Univ. Tor. Press [Google Scholar]
• Davidson CN 1989 . Reading in America: Literature and Social History Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• De Angelis R 2002 . Between Anthropology and Literature London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
• De Certeau M 1988 . The Practice of Everyday Life Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
• Dennis PA , Aycock W 1989 . Literature and Anthropology Lubbock: Tex. Tech Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Eco U. 1984 . The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Eco U. 1994 . Six Walks in the Fictional Woods Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Engelsing R. 1970 . Die Perioden der Lesergeschichte in der Neuzeit. Das statistische Ausmass and die soziokulturelle Bedeutung der Lektüre. Arch. Gesch. Buchwes. 10 : 945– 1002 [Google Scholar]
• Engelsing R. 1974 . Der Bürger als Leser. Lesergeschichte in Deutschland 1500–1800 Stuttgart, Ger: Metzler [Google Scholar]
• Fetterley J. 1978 . The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Fish S. 1980 . Is There a Text in This Class: The Authority of Interpretive Communities Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Fish S. 1992 . Literature in the reader: affective stylistics. See Tompkins 1992b 70– 100
• Flint K. 1993 . The Woman Reader Oxford, UK: Clarendon [Google Scholar]
• Flynn EA , Schweickart PP 1986 . Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Freund E. 1987 . The Return of the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism London: Methuen [Google Scholar]
• Fuller D , Rehberg Sedo N 2013 . Reading Beyond the Book: The Social Practices of Contemporary Literary Culture London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
• Furani K. 2012 . Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Gade AM. 2004 . Perfection Makes Practice: Learning, Emotion and the Recited Qur'ān in Indonesia Honolulu: Univ. Hawai‘i Press [Google Scholar]
• Geertz C. 1988 . Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Gell A. 1998 . Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory Oxford, UK: Clarendon [Google Scholar]
• Graham WA 1987 . Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Handler R , Segal D 1990 . Jane Austen and the Fiction of Culture: An Essay on the Narration of Social Realities Tucson: Univ. Ariz. Press [Google Scholar]
• Haynes N 2018 . The expansive present: a new model of Christian time. Curr. Anthropol. In press [Google Scholar]
• Heath SB. 1983 . Ways With Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Hecht T. 2006 . After Life: An Ethnographic Novel Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Hellekson K , Busse K 2006 . Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays Jefferson, NC: McFarland [Google Scholar]
• Hillis Miller J. 2002 . On Literature London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
• Hoesterey JB. 2015 . Rebranding Islam: Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-Help Guru Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Holland NN. 1980 . Re-covering “The Purloined Letter”: reading as a personal transaction. See Suleiman & Crosman 1980 350– 70
• Holland NN. 1992 . Unity identity text self. See Tompkins 1992b 118– 33
• Hymes D. 2003 . Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics Lincoln: Univ. Neb. Press [Google Scholar]
• Irvine RDG. 2010 . How to read: Lectio divina in an English Benedictine monastery. Cult. Relig. 11 : 4 395– 411 [Google Scholar]
• Iser W. 1980 . Interaction between text and reader. See Suleiman & Crosman 1980 106– 19
• Iser W. 1989 . Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Iser W. 1992 . The reading process: a phenomenological approach. See Tompkins 1992b 50– 69
• Iser W. 1993 . The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Jackson M. 1986 . Barawa and the Way Birds Fly in the Sky Washington: Smithson. Inst [Google Scholar]
• Jackson M. 2013 . The Other Shore: Essays in Writers and Writing Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
• Jauss HR. 1982 . Towards an Aesthetic of Reception Minneapolis: Univ. Minn. Press [Google Scholar]
• Jenkins H. 1992 . Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
• Jenkins H. 2009 . How “Dumbledore's Army” is transforming the real world: an interview with the HP Alliance's Andrew Slack. MIT Cent. Civic Media Blog July 23. https://civic.mit.edu/blog/how-dumbledores-army-is-transforming-our-world-an-interview-with-the-hp-alliances-andrew-slack-0 [Google Scholar]
• Kelley M. 2006 . Learning to Stand and Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America's Republic Chapel Hill: Univ. N. C. Press [Google Scholar]
• Livingston E. 1995 . An Anthropology of Reading Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Long E. 2003 . Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in Everyday Life Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
• Luhrmann TM. 2012a . A hyperreal God and modern belief: toward an anthropological theory of mind. Cult. Anthropol. 53 : 4 371– 95 [Google Scholar]
• Luhrmann TM. 2012b . When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God New York: Knopf [Google Scholar]
• Lyons M. 1999 . New readers in the nineteenth century: women, children, workers. A History of Reading in the West G Cavallo, R Chartier 313– 44 Cambridge, UK: Polity Press [Google Scholar]
• Manguel A. 1997 . A History of Reading London: Flamingo [Google Scholar]
• Manoukian S. 2012 . City of Knowledge in Twentieth Century Iran: Shiraz, History and Poetry London/New York: Routledge [Google Scholar]
• McHenry E. 2002 . Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Miller F. 2007 . The Moral Resonance of Arab Media: Audiocassette Poetry and Culture in Yemen Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Narayan K. 2012 . Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Nardi B. 2010 . My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Press [Google Scholar]
• Newell S. 2000 . Ghanaian Popular Fiction: ‘Thrilling Discoveries in Conjugal Life’ and Other Tales Oxford, UK: James Curry [Google Scholar]
• Newell S. 2002 . Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: ‘How to Play the Game of Life .’ Manchester: Manch. Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Olszewska Z. 2015 . The Pearl of Dari: Poetry and Personhood Among Young Afghans in Iran Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Pandian A , McLean S 2017 . Crumpled Paper Boat: Experiments in Ethnographic Writing Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Pearson J. 1999 . Women's Reading in Britain 1750–1835: A Dangerous Recreation New York: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Poyatos F 1988 . Literary Anthropology: A New Interdisciplinary Approach to People, Signs and Literature Philadelphia: John Benjamins [Google Scholar]
• Rabinowitz PJ. 1987 . Before Reading: Narrative Conventions and the Politics of Interpretation Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Radway JA. 1991 . Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature Chapel Hill: Univ. N. C. Press [Google Scholar]
• Radway JA. 1997 . A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste and Middle-Class Desire Chapel Hill: Univ. N. C. Press [Google Scholar]
• Rapport N. 1994 . The Prose and the Passion: Anthropology, Literature, and the Writing of EM Forster Manchester: Manch. Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Rapport N. 1997 . Transcendent Individual: Essays Towards a Literary and Liberal Anthropology London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
• Reed A. 2002a . City of details: interpreting the personality of London. J. R. Anthropol. Inst. 8 : 127– 41 [Google Scholar]
• Reed A. 2002b . Henry and I: an ethnographic account of men's fiction reading. Ethnos 67 : 2 181– 200 [Google Scholar]
• Reed A. 2004 . Expanding “Henry”: fiction reading and its artifacts in a British literary society. Am. Ethnol. 31 : 111– 22 [Google Scholar]
• Reed A. 2011 . Literature and Agency in English Fiction Reading: A Study of the Henry Williamson Society Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Reed A. 2019 . Minor character reading: tracing an English literary society through its culture of investigation. PMLA 134 : 1 In press [Google Scholar]
• Reed A , Bialecki J 2018 . Introduction to special section 1: anthropology and character. Soc. Anthropol. 26 : 159– 67 [Google Scholar]
• Rose J. 2001 . The Intellectual Life of the British Working Class New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Rosen M. 2015 . Ethnographies of reading: beyond literacy and books. Anthropol. Q. 88 : 4 1059– 83 [Google Scholar]
• Sabeti S. 2017 . Creativity and Learning in Later Life: An Ethnography of Museum Education London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
• Salvino DN. 1989 . The word in black and white: ideologies of race and literacy in Antebellum America. See Davidson 1989 140– 56
• Schielke S. 2016 . Can poetry change the world? Reading Amal Dunqul in Egypt in 2011. Islam and the Popular Arts K van Nieuwkerk, M LeVine, M Stokes 122– 48 Austin: Univ. Tex. Press [Google Scholar]
• Schielke S , Saad Shehata M 2016 . The writing of lives: an ethnography of writers and their milieus in Alexandria Work. Pap. 17, Zentrum Moderner Orient [Google Scholar]
• Secord JA. 2003 . Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
• Sicherman B. 1989 . Sense and sensibility: a case study of women's reading in late-Victorian America. See Davidson 1989 157– 79
• Steedly M. 1993 . Hanging Without a Rope: Narrative Experience in Colonial and Postcolonial Karoland Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Stoller P. 1999 . The Jaguar: A Story of Africans in America Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Suleiman SR. 1980 . Introduction: varieties of audience-oriented criticism. See Suleiman & Crosman 1980 3– 44
• Suleiman SR , Crosman I 1980 . The Reader in the Text: Essays on Audience and Interpretation Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Tompkins J. 1992a . An introduction to reader-response criticism. See Tompkins 1992b, pp. ix–xxvi
• Tompkins J 1992b . Reader-Response Criticism. From Formalism to Post-Structuralism Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
• Wulff H 2016 . The Anthropologist as Writer: Genres and Contexts in the Twenty-First Century . Oxford, UK: Berghahn
• Article Type: Review Article

Most Read This Month

Most cited most cited rss feed, ethnography in/of the world system: the emergence of multi-sited ethnography, the politics and poetics of infrastructure, migrant “illegality” and deportability in everyday life, poetics and performances as critical perspectives on language and social life, language and agency, refugees and exile: from "refugee studies" to the national order of things, parks and peoples: the social impact of protected areas, language ideology, think practically and look locally: language and gender as community-based practice, the local and the global: the anthropology of globalization and transnationalism.

• UWF Libraries

Literature Review: Conducting & Writing

• Sample Literature Reviews
• Steps for Conducting a Lit Review
• Finding "The Literature"
• Organizing/Writing
• APA Style This link opens in a new window
• Chicago: Notes Bibliography This link opens in a new window
• MLA Style This link opens in a new window

Sample Lit Reviews from Communication Arts

Have an exemplary literature review.

• Literature Review Sample 1
• Literature Review Sample 2
• Literature Review Sample 3

Have you written a stellar literature review you care to share for teaching purposes?

Are you an instructor who has received an exemplary literature review and have permission from the student to post?

Please contact Britt McGowan at [email protected] for inclusion in this guide. All disciplines welcome and encouraged.

• << Previous: MLA Style
• Next: Get Help! >>
• Last Updated: Aug 8, 2024 11:00 AM
• URL: https://libguides.uwf.edu/litreview

Anthropological Literature

Anthropological Literature is a database produced by Harvard University under the direction of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

This resource indexes journals primarily from the collection of Tozzer Library (formerly the Peabody Museum Library), as well as some open access journals.

Anthropological Literature includes:  

• 660 journals with more than 670,000 articles devoted to anthropology, archaeology, and related interdisciplinary research
• Content not available in HOLLIS
• International research in over 50 languages
• Publications from the 18th century to present day 

Search Anthropological Literature

Anthropological Literature is one of the primary databases for anthropology scholarship. Anthropological Index Online is another core anthropology database and is produced by the Royal Anthropological Institute. These two major resources can be searched simultaneously using the Anthropology Plus database.