The Challenge: Today a daunting quantity of scholarship relating to Hamlet exists. While databases and electronic catalogues aid research, these directories present a virtual wall of minimal bibliographic data. Sorting through lists still takes eons. Meanwhile, new publications are constantly added to the academic stacks that ever threaten to tumble over.

The Solution: A web site that groups together scholarly publications using similar approaches and treating similar subjects will translate the overwhelming into the maneuverable. The online medium will provide accessibility to everyone-student, research assistant, instructor, scholar-and will guarantee the opportunity to update this resource on a regular basis.

Scope: Listings will span materials published between 1991and 2001. The bibliography will exclude notes, reviews, abstracts, and treatments of theatre and film performances as well as certain forums (e.g., newsletters, bulletins, electronic journals). Scholarship focusing on the Folio/Quartos debate seems relevant but requires specific and technical specialization and will thus be omitted. Pedagogical studies and comparisons of Hamlet to other literary works will also be excluded.

Research: IAC Expanded Academic Index, 1982-1995, IAC Expanded Academic Index, 1996-, and MLA Bibliography databases, as well as Dr. Sara Deats' private bibliography on Hamlet, will be combed for applicable scholarship.

Organization: The bibliography will categorize publications by theoretical approach (e.g., feminism, new historicism) and subject focus (e.g., characters, themes). It will arrange individual works alphabetically by author within each subsection, using the MLA format.