“Postmodern”(ish) tendencies in AACR2

Reading Chan’s Cataloging and Classification for my Bibliographic control class, she makes the distinction between Rigid and Relaxed choices of names when making main and added entries. She also recants a history of classification norms, beginning with ALA codes which were very rigid: each individual had one form of name, their “real” name, and all other authors attached to that individual, be they pseudonyms or whatever, were referenced to that name. Thus “Marx Twain” was always “Clemens, Samuel Langhorne” in the catalogue.

However, by 1967 AACR allowed for a “modified rigid” approach: each person was alloted one name, but that name could be a pseudonym if it was the most commonly known one. Now AACR2R recognizes that individuals can have many “bibliographic identities.” Contemporary authors even get a heading for every single pseudonym that they use. What a totally “postmodern” conception (a word I use only for convenience because I want to get back to studying and not spend time defending whatever the hell it means).

Is this a little bit of the “Death of the Author”? I love when I find little gems of philosophy in this science. In a sense it is like an art, it is governed by cultural trends.

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