Literature is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning "an individual written character (letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry. In much, if not all of the world, texts can be oral as well, and include such genres as epic, legend, myth, ballad, other forms of oral poetry, and the folktale.

Introduction

---

Nations can have literatures, as can corporations, philosophical schools or historical periods. Popular belief commonly holds that the literature of a nation, for example, comprises the collection of texts which make it a whole nation. The Hebrew Bible, Persian Shahnama, Thirukural, Beowulf, the Iliad and the Odyssey and the Constitution of the United States, all fall within this definition of a kind of literature.

More on [ Literature ]

Literature - Twitter Search

DUMBOCRACY author @martybeckerman is the greatest writer in the history of literature?!? @disinfo #martybeckerman http://bit.ly/64E2j7
stefandam (Stefan Damian) Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:41:12 -0000
DUMBOCRACY author @martybeckerman is the greatest writer in the history of literature?!? @disinfo #martybeckerman http://bit.ly/64E2j7
RT @juliebug66: Living literature competition at jr beta club state convention. Anna is a pink lady from Grease http://twitpic.com/sxy1v
betaclub (National Beta Club) Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:40:32 -0000
RT @juliebug66: Living literature competition at jr beta club state convention. Anna is a pink lady from Grease http://twitpic.com/sxy1v
Dozens of people are asking if I am the greatest writer in the history of literature. No, I am the greatest man in the history of the world.
martybeckerman (Marty Beckerman) Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:39:47 -0000
Dozens of people are asking if I am the greatest writer in the history of literature. No, I am the greatest man in the history of the world.
@MrFreckleton Piebalds in literature: there should be dachshunds in this http://www.bartleby.com/122/13.html
wombatarama (wombatarama) Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:38:30 -0000
@MrFreckleton Piebalds in literature: there should be dachshunds in this http://www.bartleby.com/122/13.html
DUMBOCRACY author @martybeckerman is the greatest writer in the history of literature?!? @disinfo #martybeckerman http://bit.ly/8QZ6N3
gostlund (Gavin Ostlund) Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:37:48 -0000
DUMBOCRACY author @martybeckerman is the greatest writer in the history of literature?!? @disinfo #martybeckerman http://bit.ly/8QZ6N3
@chiaczar I was uneducated on this matter. Mormons in literature, it always causes problems and/or terrible sparkling vampires.
comicalsneakers (Sarah) Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:35:52 -0000
@chiaczar I was uneducated on this matter. Mormons in literature, it always causes problems and/or terrible sparkling vampires.

Subscribe to Literature RSS feed