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EditWatch this pageLiterature

This article is about the art of written work. For the card game, see Literature (card game). For literature in the field technical publications, see Academic publishing.

The Classic of Rites (Chinese: 禮記; pinyin: Lǐjì), an ancient Chinese text. Certain definitions of literature have taken it to include all written work.

Literature, in its broadest sense, is any writtenwork; etymologically the term derives fromLatin litaritura/litteratura "writing formed with letters", although some definitions includespoken or sung texts. More restrictively, it is writing that possesses literary merit, and language that foregrounds literariness, as opposed to ordinary language. Literature can be classified according to whether it is fictionor non-fiction and whether it is poetry orprose; it can be further distinguished according to major forms such as the novel,short story or drama; and works are often categorised according to historical periods or their adherence to certain aesthetic features or expectations (genre).

Taken to mean only written works, literature was first produced by some of the world's earliest civilizations—those of Ancient Egyptand Sumeria—as early as the 4th millennium BC; taken to include spoken or sung texts, it originated even earlier, and some of the first written works may have been based on a pre-existing oral tradition. As urban cultures and societies developed, there was a proliferation in the forms of literature. Developments in print technology allowed for literature to be distributed and experienced on an unprecedented scale, which has culminated in the twenty-first century in electronic literature.

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Definition

Major forms

History

Awards

Essays

Other prose literature

Other narrative forms

Genres of...