April: Doors - Subject of the Month: 2026 - Research Guides at Wayne State University

April: Doors - Subject of the Month: 2026 - Research Guides at Wayne State University
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Research Guides
Subject of the Month
Subject of the Month: 2026
April: Doors
Subject of the Month: 2026
April: Doors
March: Agatha Christie
February: Black History Month
January: The Moon in Culture
Connect with the Libraries
Have an idea for Subject of the Month?
April's Subject of the Month
Doors
Selector: Vaughn Haynes
Does he know about the D-O-R-E?"
"Huh?!"
"THE DOOR!"
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
A door is a movable barrier for opening and closing an entrance, commonly turning on hinges or sliding in grooves.
It also refers to:
a doorway.
to go through the door.
the building, house, etc., to which a door belongs.
"My friend lives two doors down the street."
any means of approach, admittance, or access.
the doors to learning.
any gateway marking an entrance or exit from one place or state to another.
at heaven's door.
Several idioms hinge on doors:
Lay at someone's door.
to hold someone accountable for; blame; impute
The blame for the accident was laid at the manufacturer's door.
Leave the door open.
to allow the possibility of accommodation or change
The boss left the door open for discussing it again next year.
A revolving door.
a situation with high turnover
The team has had a revolving door of coaches.
Show someone the door.
to request or order someone to leave; dismiss
She resented his remark and showed him the door.
Doors can have aesthetic, symbolic, or ritualistic purposes. Receiving the key to a door can signify a change in status from outsider to insider. Doors and doorways frequently appear in literature and the arts with metaphorical or allegorical significance as a threshold to be crossed.
Deimos - Dragan Bibin (2015)
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Dorothea Tanning (1943)
The Open Door - John Armstrong (1930)
Young Woman at an Open Half-Door - Rembrandt van Rijn (1645)
Black Door with Red - Georgia O'Keeffe (1954)
The Doors - Tracey Emin (2023)
The Improvement - René Magritte (1962)
Gateway, Tangier - Henry Ossawa Tanner (1912)
Moonlight, Strandgade 30 - Vilhelm Hammershøi (1900-1906)
Christina Olson - Andrew Wyeth (1948)
Gates of Paradise - Lorenzo Ghiberti (1403-1424)
The Doors (Les Portes) - Xavier Mellery (1900)
Rooms by the Sea - Edward Hopper (1951)
Il Ritornante - Giorgio De Chirico (1918)
Doorway - Marcus C Stone (late 19th century)
Books/eBooks - Nonfiction
Paratexts
by
Girard Genette; Jane E. Lewin (Translator); Richard Macksey (Foreword by, Contribution by); Anthony Cascardi (Contribution by)
ISBN: 9780521424066
Publication Date: 1997-03-13
With clarity, precision and an extraordinary range of reference, Paratexts constitutes an encyclopedic survey of the customs and institutions as revealed in the borderlands of the text.
The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure
by
Victor W. Turner
Call Number: 107864
ISBN: 0801491630
Publication Date: 1977-05-31
Turner argues that society moves between structured, hierarchical roles and liminal "anti-structure" (or "communitas"), a transformative phase of egalitarian, intense community bonding.
The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
by
M. M. Bakhtin; Michael Holquist (Editor, Translator); Caryl Emerson (Translator)
Call Number: PN3331 .B2513 1981
ISBN: 0292715277
Publication Date: 1981-01-01
The Dialogic Imagination posits that the novel re-creates a reality that is based on the interactions of a variety of subjective consciousnesses and ways of thinking and speaking about the world.
Articles
Theory
Liminality and Communitas
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Ever heard of "liminal spaces?" This book chapter is where the term came from and explains how liminal states temporarily reorder social hierarchies.
Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel
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A "Chronotope" describes the way space and time are the same thing in literature and the way literary space-time is always differently constructed than in reality.
Criticism
Secret Passages in Jane Eyre
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An analysis of how hidden spaces and architectural concealment (locked rooms, secret routes) drive the novel’s Gothic energies and its politics of knowledge and containment.
The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen
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Critics have fought over Nora’s departure since 1879, turning the famous door slam into a debate about gender and interpretation of what the play is really about.
The Uncanny in Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves"
Bemong reads the novel’s impossible house and shifting passages/doorways through psychoanalytic theories of the uncanny to explain its distinctive architectural dread.
Franz Kafka's "Before the Law" A Parable
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Brackett interprets the parable as a pointed warning about how legal systems can turn access to law into an endlessly postponed promise.
More Guides
by
Janelle Lyons
747 views this year
Film Studies/Media Studies
by
Janelle Lyons
637 views this year
COM 7610 - Feminist Media Theory and Criticism
by
Serena Vaquilar
35 views this year
New Library Materials
In Architecture
Function
Journals
Databases
Turning Architecture Inside out: Revolving Doors and Other Threshold Devices
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An examination of how revolving doors and other threshold technologies reshape the boundary between inside and outside and change how architecture is experienced as a public commodity.
Doors to the dead. The power of doorways and thresholds in Viking Age Scandinavia
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Doorways as ritual and symbolic architectural elements, showing how thresholds structured transition, transformation, and mortuary practice in Viking Age contexts.
Threshold Spaces: The Transitional Spaces Between Outside and Inside in Traditional Indian Dwellings
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This study analyzes threshold zones in traditional Indian houses as social and sensory in-between spaces.
Task demands and human capabilities in door use
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An analysis of the physical and ergonomic demands of opening and moving through doors in order to connect door design with actual user capabilities.
Opening Doors To Everyone
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This guide from the ADA explains how accessible door design improves usability for people with disabilities.
Experimental Studies of Wheelchair and Walker Users Passing Through Doors with Different Opening Force
A study of how wheelchair and walker users experience different opening forces.
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
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English-language journal on the history of the built environment with a special focus on architectural history and interpretation.
arq: Architectural Research Quarterly
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Research and commentary across the full breadth of architectural practice and theory, including design, urbanism, history, theory, environmental design, construction, and materials.
Buildings & Cities
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Built-environment policy, practice, and outcomes across the full building life cycle. Emphasis on research that can improve the built environment.
Frontiers of Architectural Research
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Original research articles, reviews, and case studies for scholars, architects, and engineers.
WSU General Art Collection
Features over 6,000 art and architectural images licensed from Scholars Resource, an image archive for the teaching of art history. Includes important works from over 100 museums worldwide. Images are made available through Luna software, giving users the ability to easily create presentations and slideshows.
Images of America
A resource cultivated from Arcadia Publishing's series of local history books. At completion, it will include over 1 million historical images and texts, celebrating the places and faces that give America its spirit and life. All of the images and texts have been indexed to provide an unprecedented level of access into the contents, enabling users to explore the depth of a town's history or to compare the histories of various towns, cultures, ethnic groups, architectural features, and more.
Art Index Retrospective
Covers 55 years of art journalism. Besides periodicals, users have access to data from important yearbooks and select museum bulletins. The Index helps users find contemporary art criticism at the time of its debut, track the body of work of an artist or movement, and find artist interviews and other commentary. Includes sources published in English as well as French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch.
Iconic Doors Throughout History
The Holy Door – St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
Era: 15th century (restored in 20th century)
Material: Bronze
Opened only during Jubilee years, this sacred door’s intricate reliefs depict redemption and faith, underscoring its role as both spiritual passage and artistic treasure.
The Great Doors of the Mosque of Uqba – Kairouan, Tunisia
Era: 9th century
Material: Teak wood with bronze studs
These grand doors blend Islamic geometric artistry with strength and durability. The teak wood, imported from Southeast Asia, reflects the global trade networks of the Aghlabid dynasty.
The East Doors of the Hōryū-ji Temple – Nara, Japan
Era: 7th century
Material: Cypress wood with ornate metal fittings
As some of the oldest surviving Buddhist temple doors, they symbolize spiritual protection. The craftsmanship showcases Japan’s mastery of joinery and minimal yet meaningful decoration.
The Doors of Durham Cathedral – England
Era: 12th century
Material: Bronze
Cast in large sheets, these medieval doors feature religious scenes that combine artistry with the engineering skill required to work such a massive piece of metal.
The Rajabai Clock Tower Door – Mumbai, India
Era: 19th century
Material: Teak wood with brass accents
Inspired by Venetian Gothic design, these doors combine colonial architectural elegance with the rich tropical hardwoods of India.
The Ishtar Gate – Babylon (modern-day Iraq)
Era: 6th century BCE
Material: Glazed brick
Although technically a monumental gate, the arched doorway was richly decorated with images of lions, dragons, and bulls — symbols of divine protection and imperial strength.
The Door of the Church of the Nativity – Bethlehem, Palestine
Era: 6th century (altered in 16th century)
Material: Wood
Known as the “Door of Humility,” its deliberately lowered height compels visitors to bow as they enter, combining religious symbolism with medieval security measures.
The Bronze Doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni – Pisa, Italy
Era:12th century
Material: Bronze
Preceding Florence’s more famous Baptistery doors, these panels depict biblical scenes in Romanesque style, serving as early examples of narrative bronze craftsmanship.
The Bank of England Security Doors – London, England
Era: 20th century
Material: Steel
These massive 25-ton doors merge industrial engineering with neoclassical elegance, proving that even modern security can be an art form.
The Gates of Paradise – Florence Baptistery, Italy
Era: 15th century
Material: Gilded bronze
Designer: Lorenzo Ghiberti
Michelangelo famously called these doors “The Gates of Paradise.” Each panel, crafted in stunning high relief, tells an Old Testament story with Renaissance mastery. Their artistry and precision set the standard for decorative bronze doors for centuries.
Robenhausen Door
The Robenhausen door is a wooden door preserved in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich and dated to more than 5,500 years ago. It was discovered in 1868 by Jakob Messikommer during excavations in the Robenhausen marshes near Lake Pfäffiker, at a time when Swiss researchers were just beginning to identify prehistoric pile-dwelling settlements, and it quickly became an important find in early prehistoric archaeology.
The Robenhausen door.
Measuring about 1.6 m high and 65 cm wide, the door was fashioned from the sapwood of a silver fir, with a lower pivot spur and holes along one side that suggest it was attached to a frame with leather strips or cord, showing that Neolithic builders had already developed practical and sophisticated construction techniques.
Attempted reconstruction of a house from the Pfyn culture with Robenhausen door added.
Because dendrochronology could not be used effectively, researchers relied on radiocarbon testing in 1998, which dated the door to around 3700 BC, placing it in the Neolithic period and making it one of the earliest known house doors from the site. Similar Neolithic doors have since been found elsewhere in Switzerland.
For an exhibition in the 1950s, the door was mounted in a reconstructed door frame.
Source
Observations on Prehistoric Archaeology in Greece
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This 1870 article represents early documentation of prehistoric findings in Greece, highlighting initial discoveries and analysis of prehistoric materials.
Tiny Doors ATL
Tiny Doors ATL
is an Atlanta-based interactive art project created by Karen Anderson Singer. The small entryway-styled installations are designed to reflect the spirit and architecture of the community they represent.
Read more about the project
here
Omega Mart
Omega Mart
is an interactive art installation that starts out as a grocery store, however, passing through secret doors reveals secret rooms and immersive, cryptic storytelling.
In Detroit
Research Archives
Exhibits
Online Resources
Detroit Public Library - Burton Historical Collection
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The Burton Historical Collection specializes in Detroit/regional history and supports research on historic buildings and architects.
Detroit Historical Society
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The Detroit Historical Society offers museums and online archives, making it a good place to explore buildings, neighborhoods, and preservation history. Of particular interest might be the
Encyclopedia of Detroit
Preservation Detroit
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Preservation Detroit has tours and preservation work focusing on cultural, architectural, and community preservation.
The Guardian Building
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The Guardian Building features an 1928-29 Art Deco design with some very interesting entrances.
DIA
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The Detroit Institute has some very interesting
exhibits featuring doors and architecture
Detroit Historical Museum
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The DHM presents Detroit’s built and cultural history, with several architectural-themed exhibits.
Historic Detroit
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HistoricDetroit.org is dedicated to telling the stories of Detroit’s historic places and has several pieces on architectural history.
Revolving Doors
A revolving door is an entrance system with several "door wings" mounted around a central vertical shaft so that people can move through one compartment at a time while the opening stays mostly sealed.
The first version was patented in the US by Theophilus van Kannel in 1888 as a "Storm Door Structure":
Revolving doors are great for air/temperature control. Because the entrance is never fully open, it essentially acts as an airlock.
An MIT study
found that two of their revolving doors on campus saved them $7500 in natural gas amounting to nearly 15 tons of CO2.
Modern revolving doors today still use the same layout, but now add motors, speed controls, safety rails, and sensors that slow or stop the door if a person or object gets too close.
Revolving entrance doors: Machines or structural elements?
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This article argues for stricter safety standard for revolving doors.
TV Tropes
Doors appear all over the place in fiction.
Elevator Doors
Elevator doors come in two parts: the car doors on the elevator itself and the landing/hoistway doors on each floor. The landing doors are there mainly to keep people from accessing the shaft when the car is not present, and passenger-elevator landing doors are required to use interlocks so they stay locked unless conditions are safe.
In most modern elevators, the doors are automatic sliding doors. Common layouts include center-opening doors, where panels split and slide apart from the middle, and side-opening/telescopic doors, where panels slide to one side.
Mechanically, when the elevator car arrives at a floor, the car-door mechanism connects with the landing-door mechanism, unlocks the landing door, and opens both together. When the car leaves, the landing door stays shut and locked. Modern systems also use door safety sensors/light curtains that detect people or objects and reopen the doors if something is in the way.
Elevator Doors
The entry for elevator doors on
Elevatorpedia, the Wiki for Elevators and Escalators
Elevators and escalators
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OSHA standards and laws for elevators and escalators.
How the Doors of Commercial and Residential Elevators Work
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A breakdown of how elevator doors work.
The Green Glass Door
Can you figure out what can go through the green glass door?
You can bring a poodle, but not a dog.
You can bring the moon, but not the sun.
You can bring a puddle, but not water.
You can bring boots, but not sandals.
Figure it out yet? Try a guess below:
Green Glass Door
Enter a guess to see if it can fit.
Click to reveal the answer
Any word that is spelled with a double letter can go through the green glass doors, but any word that isn’t spelled with a double letter can’t.
images source
Next:
March: Agatha Christie >>
Physical Materials - Fiction
Children's
Detective
Trap Doors
Haunted House
Epic/Mythical
Sci-Fi
Metafiction
In children's literature, doors function as invitation and rite of passage, turning crossing into an experiment with independence. Bravery and curiosity are tested while making the act of entering a new space (or story) a step toward self-actualization.
Coraline
by
Neil Gaiman; Dave McKean (Illustrator)
Call Number: G1263c
ISBN: 0380977788
Publication Date: 2002-07-02
When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous. But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by
C. S. Lewis
Call Number: 11386
ISBN: 9780064404990
Publication Date: 1994-07-01
Four siblings step through a mysterious wardrobe and into the magical Narnia, a once-peaceful land now frozen in snow and stone by the cruelty of the evil White Witch. Only the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, can put an end to the White Witch's tyranny and restore peace. But for winter to meet its death and spring to come again, a great sacrifice must be made...
Howl's Moving Castle
by
Diana Wynne Jones
Call Number: J7126h
ISBN: 0688062334
Publication Date: 1986-04-14
In this giant jigsaw puzzle of a fantasy, people and things are never quite what they seem.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by
Hugh Haughton (Editor, Introduction by, Notes by); John Tenniel (Illustrator); Lewis Carroll
Call Number: D664aTt 1998
ISBN: 0141439769
Publication Date: 2003-04-29
In a land in which nothing is as it seems and cakes, potions and mushrooms can make her shrink to ten inches or grow to the size of a house, will Alice be able to find her way home again?
A locked-room mystery (or "impossible crime") is a subgenre of detective fiction where a crime, usually murder, occurs in a seemingly impossible scenario, like a room locked from the inside, with no way for the perpetrator to enter or escape, leaving the detective (and the reader) to figure out the "how" and "who" using clever clues and logical deduction.
The Speckled Band
by
Arthur Conan Doyle
Call Number: PC2814 .B7
ISBN: 1411671627
Publication Date: 1912
"The Speckled Band" is a classic locked-room mystery that deals with the themes of parental greed, inheritance and freedom. Tinged with Gothic elements, it is considered by many to be one of Doyle's finest works, with the author himself calling it his best story.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
by
Edgar Allan Poe
Call Number: PS 2617 .A1 1843
ISBN: 0679643427
Publication Date: 1968
Poe's short mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by
Agatha Christie
ISBN: 0062986139
Publication Date: 1926
Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement in one of Agatha Christie's ten favorite novels, which was also voted by the British Crime Writers' Association as the "Best Crime Novel of all Time."
Forbidden doors and curiosity traps are elements in stories built around a prohibited door, key, or sealed room where the act of opening becomes a test of curiosity or obedience/loyalty.
Bluebeard
by
Clifton Johnson; Harry L. Smith
Call Number: 97052
ISBN: 9781409913757
Publication Date: 2008-10-01
Bluebeard is known for his previous wives who have all mysteriously disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The young bride, initially captivated by Bluebeard’s charm and wealth, soon becomes curious about the locked rooms in his mansion that he forbids her to enter.
The Bloody Chamber
by
Angela Carter
Call Number: C2441b
ISBN: 0060107081
Publication Date: 1980-02-01
Jane Eyre
by
Charlotte Bronte; Jane Jack (Editor); Margaret Smith (Editor)
Call Number: PR 4167 .J3 1969
ISBN: 0198114907
Publication Date: 1969-09-15
A scholarly edition of a novel by Charlotte Brontë. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.
A haunted house is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the property. Haunted house fiction turns doors into unstable boundaries between the known and the uncanny. Hesitant crossings, inexplicable locks, and rooms that feel “wrong” blur the line between the supernatural and the psychological.
The Shining
by
Stephen King
ISBN: 9780385121675
Publication Date: 1990-05-01
Jack Torrance takes a job as the caretaker of the remote Overlook Hotel. As the brutal winter sets in, the hotel's dark secrets begin to unravel.
The Tell-Tale Heart
by
Edgar Allen Poe; Stephen Peithman (Editor, Introduction by, Notes by)
Call Number: PS 2612 .A1 1981
ISBN: 0385149905
Publication Date: 1981-10-01
First published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is often considered a classic of the Gothic fiction genre and is one of Poe's best known short stories.
The Haunting of Hill House
by
Shirley Jackson
Call Number: 818.5 J138h
ISBN: 0140071083
Publication Date: 1984-06-05
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror.
The Turn of the Screw
by
Henry James
Call Number: PS 2116 .T8 1949
ISBN: 9781125148198
Publication Date: 1949
An unnamed narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the friend claims to have known and who is now dead.
Epic literature treats doors and gates as sacred borders: between life and death, mortal and divine, or human and monstrous. Passing through an underworld gate or heavenly threshold functions as an initiation or transformation.
The Odyssey of Homer
by
Homer; Flaxman, John, 1755-1826.
Call Number: NC1115 .F63
ISBN: 9781587156755
Publication Date: 1805
The numbered plates show episodes from the Odyssey, and are captioned with quotations from Pope's translation.
The Aeneid
by
Virgil; R. D. Williams (Translator)
Call Number: PA 6825 .W5357 1987
ISBN: 0048000426
Publication Date: 1987
A classic, scholarly edition of Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, designed for students, featuring the Latin text with extensive English introductions, commentaries, and notes that analyze Virgil's poetry, themes, and historical context
The Divine Comedy
by
Dante Alighieri; Gustave Doré (Illustrator); Lawrence Grant White (Translator)
Call Number: PQ 4315 .W5
ISBN: 9781667211497
Publication Date: 1948
The Divine Comedy, written by Italian poet Dante Alighieri in the fourteenth century, is considered the foremost work in Italian literature.
Science fiction, in particular space exploration, features doors as life-support infrastructure, where sealed thresholds manage atmosphere, quarantine, and exposure, making every opening a dramatc turning point.
The Martian
by
Andy Weir
ISBN: 0553418025
Publication Date: 2014-10-28
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
2001: A Space Odyssey 25th anniversary ed
by
Stanley Kubrick
Call Number: VIDEO TWO A1
Publication Date: 1993
From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man ventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
Alien
by
James Cameron
Publication Date: 2003
A mindless, savage, and merciless alien is attacking the crew of an intergalactic freighter and it must be stopped before they are all killed.
Metafiction literalizes the door as the reader’s entry into narrative, highlighting frames, layers, and even paratexts to show how interpretation is shaped by what the text and its relationship to the threshold of the medium itself.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by
Italo Calvino
Call Number: PQ 4807 .A45 S3713 1982
ISBN: 0156439611
Publication Date: 1982-10-20
Originally published in 1979, Italo Calvino's singular experimental novel crafted a postmodern narrative like never seen before--offering not one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense.
House of Leaves
by
Mark Z. Danielewski
ISBN: 0375420525
Publication Date: 2000-03-07
A masterpiece of horror and an astonishingly immersive, maze-like reading experience that redefines the boundaries of a novel.
The Neverending Story
by
Michael Ende; Ralph Manheim; Roswitha Quadflieg (Introduction by)
Call Number: 15876
ISBN: 0385176228
Publication Date: 1983-10-01
A lonely boy steals a magical book and is drawn into the world of Fantastica. He discovers that his imagination is needed to save the realm from a void called "The Nothing" and to help the Childlike Empress.
Databases
Arts & Humanities Database
This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies. It is designed to complement the following indexes: ABM, Avery, BHA, BHI, DAAI, Index Islamicus, MLA, Philosopher's Index and RILM.
Project Muse
A searchable database that provides access to the full text of journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press and other university presses.
JSTOR
Provides image and full-text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics, and other fields of the humanities and social sciences. WSU has perpetual access to the Arts and Sciences I-XV, Hebrew Journals and Sustainability Collections.
MLA International Bibliography
MLA BIBLIOGRAPHY (online) is the largest and most comprehensive database covering current scholarship in the modern languages, literatures, and folklore. MLA BIBLIOGRAPHY (online) corresponds to the printed annual bibliography of the Modern Language Association.
Literary Reference Center
This rich full-text database provides a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines. Literary Reference Center features a wide range of subjects including plot summaries, literary criticism, book reviews, classic short stories and novels, and author interviews.
Philosopher's Index
Provides indexing and abstracts from books and over 270 journals on philosophy and related interdisciplinary fields published in the U.S. and the Western World. Coverage is from 1940 to the present for U.S. materials, and 1967 to the present for non-U.S. references.
Scopus
"Scopus is the world's largest abstracts database of 13,450 titles from more than 4,000 international publishers with access to over 25 million abstracts (going back to 1966)." Full-text is included for some citations.
WorldCat
Over 36 million records of any type of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Includes manuscripts written as early as the 11th century.
Journals
PMLA
The journal of the MLA, publishing essays to scholars and teachers of language & literature.
Narrative
A journal of narrative theory and criticism, focusing on the novel, nonfiction narrative, film, and performance.
Modern Fiction Studies
Peer-reviewed journal on modern and contemporary fiction that welcomes historical, interdisciplinary, theoretical, and cultural approaches to narrative.
Journal of Modern Literature
A leading journal for scholarship on literature and related cultural forms from 1900 to the present.
Studies in the Novel
Criticism on the novel across all periods, genres, and interpretive approaches.
Contemporary Literature
Covers a wide range of critical practices in contemporary literary studies. Includes interviews and reviews.
Style
Journal of literary criticism and theory centered on style, stylistics, poetics, narrative, genre, figuration, rhetoric, and related methods.
The Modern Language Quarterly
A literary history journal, showing how literary works act in context.
Special Collections
Wayne State University Libraries Special Collections
serve as a repository for special collections materials regarding the history and development of children's literature; African American literature and culture; Detroit and Michigan history, art and literature; the sciences, including medicine and nursing; Judaica; and historical Michigan law.
The Door in the Wall
by
H. G. Wells; Alvin Langdon Coburn (photographer)
Call Number: PR 5774 .D6 1911
ISBN: 0879233273
Publication Date: 1980-06-01
From the
Purdy-Kresge Library Closed
collection
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
by
Sam Greenlee
Call Number: PS 3557 .R396 S6 1990
ISBN: 0814322468
Publication Date: 1989-05-01
From the
African American Literature Special Collection
Lion at the Door
by
David Attoe
Call Number: PR 6051 .T85 L5 1989
ISBN: 0316058009
Publication Date: 1989-04-01
From the
Holtzman Collection
Wearing doors away
by
Alise Alousi
Call Number: PS 3551 .L67 W4 1988
Publication Date: 1988
From the
Detroit Poetry Collection
Memory hold-the-door
by
John Buchan; David Daniell (Introduction by)
Call Number: WISE 388
ISBN: 0460022644
Publication Date: 1984
From the
Edward M. Wise Collection
Behind these doors: science museum makers
by
Margery Facklam
Call Number: QL 61 .F33 1968
Publication Date: 1968
From the
Jeheskel (Hezy) Shoshani Library Endowed Collection
The History of Doors
Image source
A Brief History of Doors
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This article summarizes the history of doors from their beginnings in ancient Egyptian architecture to today.
Websites
Sidewalk Safari - Doors, Glorious Doors!
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A travel photo directory devoted entirely to doors around the world organized into themed galleries, including a voteable "door of the week."
SFO Museum - Doors: Entryways to World Cultures
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Dating from the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, this exhibition presents house, ceremonial, tomb, granary, and palace doors from countries such as Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Iran, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Suriname.
Brooklyn Museum - Christian Marclay: Doors
Passing through decades of film history and countless portals between on-screen universes, Doors (2022) is Christian Marclay’s latest cinematic exploration of the meaning behind everyday objects.
TruStile Doors Visualizer
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Play around with 3d and build your own door!
Podcasts
Broken Doors
- a six-part investigative podcast from The Washington Post about how no-knock warrants are used in the American justice system and the failure of police accountability.
Sidedoor
- the Smithsonian's podcast where listeners are taken behind the scenes to explore unusual stories drawn from the museum's vast collections and experts.
Sliding Doors
- a conversational podcast that explores "what if" moments and the life-changing decisions or opportunities that could have led people down different paths.
Ostium
- a science-fiction audio drama about Jake Fisher, who discovers an abandoned town filled with numbered doors that open into strange places.
Speak Easy
Speakeasies were hidden, undercover or underground bars where patrons enjoyed alcohol illegally during the 1920s Prohibition era. Patrons in the know would have to use secret passwords, knocks, or handshakes to gain entry and literally “speak easy” (be as quiet as possible) to evade police attention.
Speakeasies are still around today. This guide from the Detroit Metro Times lists some speakeasies/hidden bars that are operating today in Detroit (albeit legally):
Speakeasy Detroit: Where I Found the City’s Hidden Soul
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Car Doors
Detroit is the motor city, so it's only fair that there's a section on car doors.
Suicide/Coach Doors
Rear-hinged side doors that open in the opposite direction of most car doors, often associated with vintage luxury cars and easier rear-seat access.
Butterfly Doors
Doors that swing upward and outward on angled hinges, common in high-performance/exotic cars.
Gull-Wing Doors
Roof-hinged doors that lift straight upward like wings, giving the car a distinctive silhouette.
Canopy Doors
A door system where part or all of the roof and windshield area lifts or slides open as a single canopy-like enclosure over the cabin.
Scissor Doors
Also called "Lamborghini doors," these front-hinged doors rotate vertically upward.
Sliding Doors
Doors that open by moving horizontally along a track instead of swinging outward.
The Invention and Evolution of the Automobile Door
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This article covers a brief history of automobiles, the first automobile door, and the evolution of the car door.
Trap Doors
A trapdoor or hatch is a sliding or hinged door that is flush with the surface of a floor, ceiling, or roof. While it was invented to facilitate the hoisting of grain up through mills, its list of uses has grown over time, playing a pivotal function in the operation of the gallows, cargo ships, trains, booby traps, and in live theatre.
Gallows
"Trap Door Gallows" by Robert Priseman
Most 19th- and early 20th-century gallows featured a trapdoor, usually with two flaps. The edge of a trapdoor furthest from the hinge accelerates faster than gravity, so that the condemned does not hit the flaps but falls freely.
Cargo Ships
Deck hatch of the Omega, the last square-rigged sailing cargo ship.
A cargo hatch, deck hatch, or hatchway is type of waterproof trap door used on ships to cover the opening to the cargo hold or other lower part of the ship.
Booby Traps
Trap doors with punji sticks were deployed by the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War.
The Viet Cong built hid booby in a complex tunel system hidden behind trapdoors. American "tunnel rats" could expect grenades, poison gas, punji stake traps, and tethered venomous snakes.
Know Thy Enemy and Know Yourself – The Role of Operational Data in Managing the Mines and Booby Trap Threat in Vietnam, 1965–73
Trapdoor Spiders
Trapdoor spiders create burrows with a silk-hinged trapdoor to help them ambush prey.
Trapdoor spiders construct burrows in the ground, the entrance of which features a silken-hinged door. The reclusive spider feeds by quickly opening the trap door and grabbing an insect or other arthropod that is passing close by. Trapdoor spiders are generally timid and quickly retreat into the burrow if frightened; their bite is not considered medically significant to humans.
Use of geometric morphometrics to distinguish trapdoor spider morphotypes (Mygalomorphae: Anamidae: Proshermacha): a useful tool for mygalomorph taxonomy.
Pet Door
A pet door is a trap door turned sideways... placed within a door.
A pet door is a small opening to allow pets to enter and exit a building on their own without needing a human to open the door.
Indoor proximity detection: The case study of a smart pet door
In Video Games
Doors are staples in video games, used to control player progression and functioning as a solution to a puzzle or other similar challenge.
Mario needs to collect 30 power stars to unlock this door.
The Legend of Zelda is known for its intricate lock and key system in its dungeons - the "small key" is a recurring item in the series. Its "boss doors" are large, ornate doors used to serve as a gateway to a final challenge.
The final door in the Arbiter's Grounds.
Beyond serving a functional purpose, doors can also be used to add tension and atmosphere, as seen in horror games.
You never know if Lisa is hiding behind a door.
Or for plot points in story-driven games.
What's in the bunker is one of the central mysteries in Deltarune.
The "Door Problem" is a game design analogy coined by
Liz England in 2014
that highlights the immense complexity of implementing simple, everyday objects in video games. It highlights how a single mundane element requires collaboration across multiple departments like design, art, audio, programming, and others.
Putting Doors in Video Games Is a Nightmare, Say Developers
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Turns out, putting something as simple-seeming as doors into a video game is really hard, even for big studios.
The 34 greatest, most absurdly interesting doors in gaming
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