Using MLA style for citing literary works

Unless your instructor suggests otherwise, use MLA (Modern Language Association) style for citing and formatting passages quoted from literary works and for quoting from secondary sources in a literary analysis.

MLA style usually requires that you name the author of the work quoted and give a page number for the exact location of the passage in the work. When you are writing about nonfiction articles and books, introduce a quotation with a signal phrase naming the author (John Smith points out . . .) or place the author’s name and page number in parentheses at the end of the quoted passage: . . . for all time (Smith 22).

When writing about a single work of fiction, however, you do not need to include the author’s name each time you quote from the work. You will mention the author’s name in the introduction to your paper. Then, when you are quoting from the work, include just the page number in parentheses following the quotation.

You may, of course, use the author’s name in a signal phrase to highlight the author’s role or technique, but you are not required to do so.

MLA guidelines for handling citations in the text of your paper differ somewhat for short stories or novels, poems, and plays.

Related topics:

Integrating quotations from a literary work

Using quotations appropriately (MLA)

Using brackets and the ellipsis mark to indicate changes in a quotation

Using brackets to make quotations clear (MLA)

Indenting long quotations (MLA)

Using signal phrases to integrate sources (MLA)