Document sections
Introduction
These notes, written primarily for copy cataloguers, cover folklore and works about folklore. They are intended
to supplement the Library of Congress Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings,
section H1627, “Folklore.” They are not intended to elucidate it fully, nor can hard-and-fast guidelines be
provided for distinguishing types of folklore and their different treatment in LCSH.
Cataloguing folkloric materials presents at least two basic problems:
- There are often inherent elements of subjectivity in deciding the nature of folkloric material and the
most appropriate genre to assign to it. Questions involved may include:
- To what extent are the traditional narratives presented perceived by their tellers as true? To
what extent are they perceived as fiction?
- To what extent is the purpose of the traditional narratives educational? To what extent is the
purpose entertainment, i.e., to what extent are they perceived as “good stories”?
- To what extent has some one transcribed oral accounts that are traditional and anonymous
in origin? To what extent has the person who put the account into writing added an
individual creative element, putting his or her “spin” on the narrative or putting it into her or his own words?
There are frequently no hard and fast answers to these questions.
- LC’s definitions of different genres of folklore, and its pattern of treatment, can be quite complex and, to
some ways of thinking, sometimes inconsistent.
Copy cataloguers should generally accept the existing subject headings in records for folkloric
material, unless they feel very strongly and can cite specific evidence that the
interpretation of the original cataloguer was incorrect.
In other words, please do not agonize!
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Subject heading and subdivision terms
- Folklore: The term “Folklore” represents the broadest
category. Various aspects of oral tradition, belief, and practise constitute folklore. Folklore can
thus include more than just narratives, including beliefs, medicine, rituals, and oral tradition in general.
“Folklore” can be used as a heading and as a subdivision ($v form, $x topical).
For books on this broad topic, a set of headings is often assigned:
650 0 <Ethnic, national, or occupational group>
$z <Place, when applicable>
$v Folklore. |
for folklore of this group |
| 650 0 Folklore $z <Place>. |
for folklore current or
originating in the place |
| 651 0 <Place> $x Social life and customs. |
| Sometimes: |
| 650 0 <Theme> $v Folklore. |
- E.g. Folklore of the Cayapo Indians of Pará State, Brazil:
- 650 0 $a Cayapo Indians $v Folklore.
- 650 0 $a Folklore $z Brazil $z Pará (State)
- 651 0 $a Pará (Brazil : State) $x Social life and customs.
- E.g. Folklore of merchants about camels:
- 650 0 $a Merchants $v Folklore.
[note ambiguity here]
- 650 0 $a Camels $v Folklore.
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Subcategories, or genres, of folklore are not handled consistently by LC. See Subject Cataloging Manual,
H1627, “Folklore,” table on p. 3. Some genres are treated as literary headings, while others are not.
Among the most common genres:
- Tales: Traditional narratives, handed down orally; in the form that we
usually catalogue them, they have been recorded and compiled in writing, but they are
presented as basically a transcription of the traditional (anonymous) version. With tales, the entertainment aspect
is stressed; tales are considered to be basically fictitious rather than true — but the line between fiction and truth is,
naturally, often quite grey. See also “Legends.”
LC does not apply all literary heading guidelines to “Tales.” However, for works about tales,
the subdivision “$x History and criticism” should be used, not just “History.”
- E.g. 650 0 $a Tales $z Vietnam $x History and criticism.
Note that for tales about a particular topic, a pair of headings is often assigned. If the tales are
those of a particular ethnic, national, or occupational group, an additional heading is assigned:
| 650 0 Tales $z <Place>. |
for tales current or
originating in this place |
| 650 0 <Theme> $v Folklore. |
for tales about the topic |
650 0 <Ethnic, national, or occupational group>
$z <Place, when applicable>
$v Folklore. |
for tales told by this group
|
- E.g. Tales of the Sami (Lapps) of Finland about snow.
- 650 0 $a Tales $z Finland.
- 650 0 $a Sami (European people) $z Finland $v Folklore.
- 650 0 $a Snow $x Folklore.
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- Folk drama, Folk poetry: While folk drama and folk poetry
represent a similar approach to that for tales, their focus is, of course, on specific types of traditional, anonymous literature
(drama or poetry). LC does treat these genres as literature in its subject heading system.
[Unless you have been trained in literature cataloguing, don’t worry about these genres for now.]
- Folk literature: Collection based on three or more forms of folklore
genres, traditional accounts akin to literature (e.g., tales — which could count here as one of the three! — drama, and
poetry). [Unless you have been trained in literature cataloguing, don’t worry about this subject heading for now.]
NB: Still another category comes up when an individual author bases a work on a traditional tale but adds
her or his own creative elements to it; he or she may put it in her or his own words, put a particular spin on
it, etc. In these cases, a work may actually be catalogued as an individual work of literature by that
author. Again, there can be a continuum between traditional tales and works of literature by individual authors.
Do not agonize!
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- Legends: LC defines “Legends” as used for collections of
traditional narratives generally regarded by their tellers as true, with more emphasis on an educational or
quasi-historical element than in the case of “Tales.” Legends can focus on religious and supernatural topics,
real individuals, or places. Again, there can be a continuum between “Tales” and “Legends” (see also
“Tales”). LC tends to use “Legends” as a heading rather sparingly.
NB: In many cases, when a Spanish-language text uses the term “leyendas,” the most
appropriate equivalent in LCSH terms will be “Tales.” In other words, an automatic cognate
cannot be assumed. “Cuentos” in an anonymous context generally are the equivalent of
LCSH “Tales.”
- E.g. Title: Cuentos y leyendas de mi tierra
- 650 0 $a Tales $z Mexico $z Chiapas.
— may very well be adequate.
The application of “$v Legends” as a subdivision is fairly narrow for LC: “Use under names of
individual persons and legendary characters and uniform titles of sacred works, and under religious topics.”
- E.g. 600 10 $a Presley, Elvis, $d 1935-1977 $v Legends.
- 650 0 $a Bunyan, Paul (Legendary character) $v Legends.
- 630 00 $a Talmud $v Legends.
- 650 0 $a Grail $v Legends.
For works about legends, the subdivision “$x History and criticism” should be used, not just “History.”
- E.g. 650 0 Legends $z Austria $x History and criticism.
- 600 10 Guevara, Ernesto, $d 1928-1967 $x Legends $x History and criticism.
- [note that here “Legends” appears as a $x topical subdivision]
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draft, 11 January 2000
HTML document last reviewed: 18 January 2000