33 WaYs To StAy CrEaTiVe Forum What is literature?

The Literature Club at my school was discussing what constitutes literature.  We came up with some interesting arguments, so I was wondering what others thought on the matter. 

=A way of escape from this world and creating another reality that we can control.

Wikipedia[1], a wonderful source of thought, begins this way:  "Literature[3] (from Latin litterae (plural); letter) is the art of written work and can, in some circumstances, refer exclusively to published sources. The word literature literally means "things made from letters" and the pars pro toto term "letters" is sometimes used to signify "literature," as in the figures of speech "arts and letters" and "man of letters." Literature is commonly classified as having two major forms—fiction and non-fiction—and two major techniques—poetry and prose." 

However, we should also note the constraint that precedes the article: "The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the English-speaking world and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject."  Perhaps it is also fair to add to this that all of the article is related to a definition of Literature in the context of humanity.  It gives no hint of the possibility of "literature" in the broadest sense of the word for other species.  At this point, someone will question both the validity of the last sentence and this author's sanity but I assure you that with a little thought, perhaps some imagination, it may become clear that it is not as far-fetched a premise as it sounds.  I encourage any readers of this reply to scoot over to this thread for a followup thought.[2]


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2.  How to keep your creative juices kicking?;
3.  Literature (