What is Literature?

Any written work of art that is published to teach a lesson about or show the significance about a particular subject. The subject of a piece of literature is called the theme.

What Qualifies as Literature?

  • The most obvious answer is a book. Books typically come in two forms: Picture Books and Chapter Books. Picture books are shorter works of literature, typically written for children that with shorter passages and visual images on the pages. A common type of picture book is a comic book. Comic books can be written for children or adults, and they feature dialogue from the characters with headings needed to explain the story. On the other hand, chapter books are longer works of literature, written for older children, adolescents, and adults with more content on the page. Chapter books are divided into moments within the story, called chapters. Another name for chapter books a Novel.
  • Short Stories, like chapter books, are told with more content on the page, but are shorter in length and typically are not divided into chapters.
  • Poetry is a work of literature that relies heavily on words and their meaning and is written with form and verse in mind. Although poetry is typically short, it can be written as a longer work.
  • Song relies heavily on sound and what the audience is hearing rather than what they are reading.
  • Play is a piece of literature meant to be performed for an audience in a theatre as the play is being performed in front of an audience that may be part of the experience of the literature.
  • Film is a piece of literature meant to be performed for the audience on a screen that relies on a camera to analyze the characters and setting according to the plot.
  • Concept Album is an anthology of songs by an artist in which all the songs are meant to tell a story or touches on an overarching, thought provoking theme that ties all the songs together.