b'Some Difficult Areas of Application / LiteratureLITERATUREThe field of literature presents special difficulties in cataloging because it includes two distinct typesof material. The first consists of works about literature, and such works are assigned topical subjectheadings for whatever they are about. The second consists of literary works themselves, and thoseworks are assigned form headings to describe what the item is rather than what it is about.Works about LiteratureThe subject headings for works about the various literary forms are the headings for those forms,such as Drama, Fiction, and Poetry. A work about poetry is simply given the heading Poetry.Topical subdivisions are added to such headings as needed. A work about the history of poetry orabout the criticism of poetry would be entered under PoetryHistory and criticism. A workabout the technique of writing plays would be entered under DramaTechnique. Formsubdivisions may also be used under these headings to indicate the form the work takes, such asDramaDictionaries or PoetryIndexes. In addition to the major forms of literature there arealso lesser genres, which are subsets of the major literary forms, such as Science fiction or Epicpoetry. These headings are also applicable to works about literature, with topical and formsubdivisions added as needed.Literary works are commonly studied and written about according to categories characterized bynationality, language, religions, etc. The primary consideration in discussing literature is nationality,as in American literature, Mexican literature, and Brazilian literature. These topics are neverdealt with as subsets of English literature, Spanish literature, or Portuguese literature simplybecause they are written in the English, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. Nationality takesprecedence over language. Only a few national literatures are included in the List, and others are tobe added as needed. Works about the major literary forms of national literatures are entered underthe direct phrase, such as Italian poetry or Russian fiction, and again specific aspects or forms areexpressed by subdivisions, as in Italian poetryHistory and criticism or Russian fiction Dictionaries. The subdivisions that appear under English literature may be used under anynational literature, and headings for the major literary forms for any national literature may beformulated by substituting its national name for the word English.Apart from national literatures there are also literatures characterized by areas larger than countries,such as Latin American literature or African literature; by languages not limited to or identifiedwith a single country, such as Latin literature or Arabic literature; or by religions, such asCatholic literature or Buddhist literature. All these kinds of literature are treated in the same wayas national literatures. Where a national literature is written in two or more prominent languages, thelanguage is identified in parentheses after the name of the literature for material specifically limitedto literature in that language, such as Canadian literature (French). Materials about the literaturesof minority groups within a country, written in the predominant language of that countrys literature,are identified by subdivisions indicating the author group under the name of the literature, such asAmerican literatureAfrican American authors. Materials about the literatures of indigenousA-36'