Literature is any collection ofwritten work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be anart form, especiallynovels,plays, andpoems.[1] It includes both print anddigital writing.[2] In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to includeoral literature, much of which has been transcribed.[3][4] Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmittingknowledge andentertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.
Developments in print technology have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written works, while the digital era had blurred the lines between onlineelectronic literature and other forms of modern media.
Definitions of literature have varied over time.[9] In Western Europe, prior to the 18th century, literature denoted all books and writing. It can be seen as returning to older, more inclusive notions, so thatcultural studies, for instance, include, in addition tocanonical works,popular and minority genres. The word is also used in reference to non-written works: to "oral literature" and "the literature ofpreliterate culture".[citation needed]
Etymologically, the term derives fromLatinliteratura/litteratura, "learning, writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," fromlitera/littera, "letter."[10] In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts.[11][12] Literature is often referred tosynecdochically as "writing," especiallycreative writing, and poetically as "the craft of writing" (or simply "the craft").Syd Field described his discipline,screenwriting, as "a craft that occasionally rises to the level of art."[13]
Avalue judgment definition of literature considers it as consisting solely of high quality writing that forms part of thebelles-lettres ("fine writing") tradition.[14] An example of this is in the1910–1911Encyclopædia Britannica, which classified literature as "the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing".[15]
The use of the term "literature" here poses some issues due to its origins in the Latinlittera, "letter," essentially writing. Alternatives such as "oral forms" and "oral genres" have been suggested, but the word literature is widely used.[4]
Australian Aboriginal culture has thrived on oral traditions and oral histories passed down through tens of thousands of years.In a study published in February 2020, new evidence showed that bothBudj Bim andTower Hill volcanoes erupted between 34,000 and 40,000 years ago.[16] Significantly, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence inVictoria", and also could be interpreted as evidence for the oral histories of theGunditjmara people, anAboriginal Australian people of south-western Victoria, which tell of volcanic eruptions being some of the oldest oral traditions in existence.[17] An axe found underneathvolcanic ash in 1947 had already proven that humans inhabited the region before the eruption of Tower Hill.[16]
Oral literature is anancient human tradition found in "all corners of the world."[18] Modern archaeology has been unveiling evidence of the human efforts to preserve and transmit arts and knowledge that depended completely or partially on an oral tradition, across various cultures:
The Judeo-Christian Bible reveals its oral traditional roots; medieval European manuscripts are penned by performing scribes; geometric vases from archaic Greece mirror Homer's oral style. (...) Indeed, if these final decades of the millennium have taught us anything, it must be that oral tradition never was the other we accused it of being; it never was the primitive, preliminary technology of communication we thought it to be. Rather, if the whole truth is told, oral tradition stands out as the single most dominant communicative technology of our species as both a historical fact and, in many areas still, a contemporary reality.[18]
The earliest poetry is believed to have been recited or sung, employed as a way of rememberinghistory,genealogy, and law.[19]
In Asia, the transmission of folklore, mythologies as well as scriptures in ancient India, in different Indian religions, was by oral tradition, preserved with precision with the help of elaboratemnemonic techniques.[20]
The early Buddhist texts are also generally believed to be of oral tradition, with the first by comparing inconsistencies in the transmitted versions of literature from various oral societies such as the Greek, Serbia and other cultures, then noting that the Vedic literature is too consistent and vast to have been composed and transmitted orally across generations, without being written down.[21] According to Goody, the Vedic texts likely involved both a written and oral tradition, calling it a "parallel products of a literate society".[22]
All ancient Greek literature was to some degree oral in nature, and the earliest literature was completely so.[23]Homer's epic poetry, states Michael Gagarin, was largely composed, performed and transmitted orally.[24] As folklores and legends were performed in front of distant audiences, the singers would substitute the names in the stories with local characters or rulers to give the stories a local flavor and thus connect with the audience by making the historicity embedded in the oral tradition as unreliable.[25] The lack of surviving texts about the Greek and Roman religious traditions have led scholars to presume that these were ritualistic and transmitted as oral traditions, but some scholars disagree that the complex rituals in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were an exclusive product of an oral tradition.[26]
Writing systems are not known to have existed amongNative North Americans (north of Mesoamerica) before contact with Europeans. Oral storytelling traditions flourished in a context without the use of writing to record and preserve history, scientific knowledge, and social practices.[27] While some stories were told for amusement and leisure, most functioned as practical lessons from tribal experience applied to immediate moral, social, psychological, and environmental issues.[28] Stories fuse fictional, supernatural, or otherwise exaggerated characters and circumstances with real emotions and morals as a means of teaching. Plots often reflect real life situations and may be aimed at particular people known by the story's audience. In this way, social pressure could be exerted without directly causing embarrassment orsocial exclusion.[29] For example, rather than yelling,Inuit parents might deter their children from wandering too close to the water's edge by telling a story about a sea monster with a pouch for children within its reach.[30]
The enduring significance of oral traditions is underscored in a systemic literature review on indigenous languages in South Africa, within the framework of contemporarylinguistic challenges. Oral literature is crucial for cultural preservation, linguistic diversity, and social justice, as evidenced by the postcolonial struggles and ongoing initiatives to safeguard and promote South African indigenous languages.[31]
Oratory or the art ofpublic speaking was considered a literary art for a significant period of time.[7] Fromancient Greece to the late 19th century,rhetoric played a central role in Western education in training orators, lawyers, counselors, historians, statesmen, and poets.[32][note 1]
Around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration inMesopotamia outgrew human memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form.[34] Though in bothancient Egypt andMesoamerica, writing may have already emerged because of the need to record historical and environmental events. Subsequent innovations included more uniform, predictablelegal systems,sacred texts, and the origins of modern practices ofscientific inquiry andknowledge-consolidation, all largely reliant on portable and easily reproducible forms of writing.
Many works of early periods, even in narrative form, had a covert moral or didactic purpose, such as the SanskritPanchatantra (200 BC – 300 AD), based on older oral tradition.[39][40] Drama and satire also developed as urban cultures, which provided a larger public audience, and later readership for literary production.Lyric poetry (as opposed to epic poetry) was often the speciality of courts and aristocratic circles, particularly in East Asia where songs were collected by the Chinese aristocracy as poems, the most notable being theShijing orBook of Songs (1046–c. 600 BC).[41][42][43]
TheHebrew religious text, theTorah, is widely seen as a product of thePersian period (539–333 BC, probably 450–350 BC).[65] This consensus echoes a traditional Jewish view which givesEzra, the leader of the Jewish community on its return from Babylon, a pivotal role in its promulgation.[66] This represents a major source of Christianity's Bible, which has had a major influence on Western literature.[67]
The beginning ofRoman literature dates to 240 BC, when a Roman audience saw a Latin version of a Greek play.[68] Literature inLatin would flourish for the next six centuries, and includes essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings.
TheQur'an (610 AD to 632 AD),[69] the mainholy book ofIslam, had a significant influence on the Arab language, and marked the beginning ofIslamic literature. Muslims believe it was transcribed in the Arabic dialect of theQuraysh, the tribe ofMuhammad.[29][70] As Islam spread, the Quran had the effect of unifying and standardizing Arabic.[29]
Early printed books, single sheets, and images created before 1501 in Europe are known asincunables orincunabula. "A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D. 330."[78]
In late 1820s England, growing political and social awareness, "particularly among theutilitarians andBenthamites, promoted the possibility of including courses in English literary study in the newly formedLondon University". This further developed into the idea of the study of literature being "the ideal carrier for the propagation of the humanist cultural myth of a well educated, culturally harmonious nation".[79]
The widespread education of women was not common until the nineteenth century, and because of this, literature until recently was mostlymale dominated.[80]
George Sand was an idea. She has a unique place in our age. Others are great men ... she was a great woman.
There were few English-language women poets whose names are remembered until the twentieth century. In thenineteenth century some notable individuals includeEmily Brontë,Elizabeth Barrett Browning, andEmily Dickinson (seeAmerican poetry). But while generally women are absent from the European canon ofRomantic literature, there is one notable exception, the French novelist and memoirist Amantine Dupin (1804 – 1876) best known by herpen nameGeorge Sand.[82][83] One of the more popular writers in Europe in her lifetime,[84] being more renowned than bothVictor Hugo andHonoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s,[85] Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era.Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) is the first major English woman novelist, whileAphra Behn is an early female dramatist.
A separate genre of children's literature only began to emerge in the eighteenth century, with the development of the concept ofchildhood.[88]: x–xi The earliest of these books were educational books, books on conduct, and simple ABCs—often decorated with animals, plants, and anthropomorphic letters.[89]
A fundamental question ofliterary theory is "what is literature?" – although many contemporary theorists and literary scholars believe either that "literature" cannot be defined or that it can refer to any use of language.[90]
Literary fiction is a term used to describe fiction that explores any facet of thehuman condition, and may involvesocial commentary. It is often regarded as having more artistic merit thangenre fiction, especially the most commercially oriented types, but this has been contested in recent years, with the serious study of genre fiction within universities.[91]
The following, by the British authorWilliam Boyd on the short story, might be applied to all prose fiction:
[short stories] seem to answer something very deep in our nature as if, for the duration of its telling, something special has been created, some essence of our experience extrapolated, some temporary sense has been made of our common, turbulent journey towards the grave and oblivion.[92]
The very best in literature is annually recognized by theNobel Prize in Literature, which is awarded to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialistAlfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" (original Swedish:den som inom litteraturen har producerat det mest framstående verket i en idealisk riktning).[93][94]
Some researchers suggest that literary fiction can play a role in an individual's psychological development.[95] Psychologists have also been using literature as a therapeutic tool.[96][97] Psychologist Hogan argues for the value of the time and emotion that a person devotes to understanding a character's situation in literature;[98] that it can unite a large community by provoking universal emotions, as well as allowing readers access to different cultures, and new emotional experiences.[99] One study, for example, suggested that the presence of familiar cultural values in literary texts played an important impact on the performance of minority students.[100]
PsychologistMaslow's ideas help literary critics understand how characters in literature reflect their personal culture and the history.[101] The theory suggests that literature helps an individual's struggle for self-fulfillment.[102][103]
TheKing James Version of the Bible has been called "the most influential version of the most influential book in the world, in what is now its most influential language", "the most important book in English religion and culture", and "arguably the most celebrated book in theEnglish-speaking world,"[108] principally because of its literary style and widespread distribution. Prominentatheist figures such as the lateChristopher Hitchens andRichard Dawkins have praised the King James Version as being "a giant step in the maturing of English literature" and "a great work of literature", respectively, with Dawkins adding: "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian".[109][110]
Societies in whichpreaching has great importance, and those in which religious structures andauthorities have a near-monopoly ofreading and writing and/or a censorship role (as, for example, in the EuropeanMiddle Ages), may impart a religious gloss[clarification needed] to much of the literature those societies produce or retain. The traditions ofclose study of religious texts has furthered the development of techniques and theories inliterary studies.[citation needed]
Poetry has traditionally been distinguished fromprose by its greater use of theaesthetic qualities of language, including musical devices such asassonance,alliteration,rhyme, andrhythm, and by being set inlines andverses rather than paragraphs, and more recently its use of othertypographical elements.[111][112][113] This distinction is complicated by various hybrid forms such asdigital poetry,sound poetry,concrete poetry andprose poem,[114] and more generally by the fact that prose possesses rhythm.[115] Abram Lipsky refers to it as an "open secret" that "prose is not distinguished from poetry by lack of rhythm".[116]
Prior to the 19th century, poetry was commonly understood to be something set in metrical lines: "any kind of subject consisting of Rhythm or Verses".[111] Possibly as a result ofAristotle's influence (hisPoetics), "poetry" before the 19th century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art.[clarification needed][117] As a form it may pre-dateliteracy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition;[118][119] hence it constitutes the earliest example of literature.
As noted above, prose generally makes far less use of the aesthetic qualities of language than poetry.[112][113][120] However, developments in modern literature, includingfree verse andprose poetry have tended to blur the differences, and poetT.S. Eliot suggested that while "the distinction betweenverse and prose is clear, the distinction between poetry and prose is obscure".[121] There areverse novels, a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose.Eugene Onegin (1831) byAlexander Pushkin is the most famous example.[122]
On the historical development of prose, Richard Graff notes that, in the case ofancient Greece, "recent scholarship has emphasized the fact that formal prose was a comparatively late development, an 'invention' properly associated with theclassical period".[123]
Latin was a major influence on the development of prose in many European countries. Especially important was the great Roman oratorCicero.[124] It was thelingua franca among literate Europeans until quite recent times, and the great works ofDescartes (1596 – 1650),Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), andBaruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) were published in Latin. Among the last important books written primarily in Latin prose were the works ofSwedenborg (d. 1772),Linnaeus (d. 1778),Euler (d. 1783),Gauss (d. 1855), andIsaac Newton (d. 1727).
A novel is a long fictional narrative, usually written in prose. In English, the term emerged from theRomance languages in the late 15th century, with the meaning of "news"; it came to indicate something new, without a distinction between fact or fiction.[125] The romance is a closely related long prose narrative.Walter Scott defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvelous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society".[126] Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel isle roman,der Roman,il romanzo",[127] indicates the proximity of the forms.[128]
Although there are many historical prototypes, so-called "novels before the novel",[129] the modern novel form emerges late in cultural history—roughly during the eighteenth century.[130] Initially subject to much criticism, the novel has acquired a dominant position amongst literary forms, both popularly and critically.[128][131][132]
The publisherMelville House classifies the novella as "too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story".[133] Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a novella to be between 17,000 and 40,000 words.[134]
A dilemma in defining the "short story" as a literary form is how to, or whether one should, distinguish it from any short narrative and its contested origin,[135] that include the Bible, andEdgar Allan Poe.[136]
Non-fiction can fall within the broad category of literature as "any collection of written work", but some works fall within the narrower definition "by virtue of the excellence of their writing, their originality and their general aesthetic and artistic merits".[138]
Drama is literature intended for performance.[139] The form is combined with music and dance in opera and musical theatre (seelibretto). A play is a written dramatic work by a playwright that is intended for performance in a theatre; it comprises chieflydialogue between characters. Acloset drama, by contrast, is written to be read rather than to be performed; the meaning of which can be realized fully on the page.[140] Nearly all drama took verse form until comparatively recently.
The earliest form of which there exists substantial knowledge isGreek drama. This developed as a performance associated with religious and civic festivals, typically enacting or developing upon well-known historical, ormythological themes,
In the twentieth century,scripts written for non-stage media have been added to this form, includingradio, television and film.
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of acreative work, usually for a limited time.[141][142][143][144][145] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[146][147][148]
Literary works have been protected by copyright law from unauthorized reproduction since at least 1710.[149] Literary works are defined by copyright law to mean "any work, other than a dramatic or musical work, which is written, spoken or sung, and accordingly includes (a) a table or compilation (other than a database), (b) a computer program, (c) preparatory design material for a computer program, and (d) a database."[150]
Literary works are all works of literature; that is all works expressed in print or writing (other than dramatic or musical works).[151]
Thecopyright law of the United States has a long and complicated history, dating back to colonial times. It was established as federal law with the Copyright Act of 1790. This act was updated many times, including amajor revision in 1976.
Japan was a party to the originalBerne convention in 1899, so its copyright law is in sync with most international regulations. The convention protected copyrighted works for 50 years after the author's death (or 50 years after publication for unknown authors and corporations). However, in 2004 Japan extended the copyright term to 70 years for cinematographic works. At the end of 2018, as a result of theTrans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, the 70-year term was applied to all works.[152] This new term is not applied retroactively; works that had entered the public domain between 1999 and 2018 by expiration would remain in the public domain.
Censorship of literature is employed by states, religious organizations, educational institutions, etc., to control what can be portrayed, spoken, performed, or written.[153] Generally such bodies attempt to ban works forpolitical reasons, or because they deal with other controversial matters such as race, orsex.[154]
A notable example of censorship isJames Joyce's novelUlysses, which has been described by Russian-American novelistVladimir Nabokov as a "divine work of art" and the greatest masterpiece of 20th century prose.[155] It wasbanned in the United States from 1921 until 1933 on the grounds of obscenity. Nowadays it is a central literary text in English literature courses, throughout the world.[156]
There are numerousawards recognizing achievements and contributions in literature. Given the diversity of the field, awards are typically limited in scope, usually on: form, genre, language, nationality and output (e.g. for first-time writers ordebut novels).[157]
^The definition of rhetoric is a controversial subject within the field and has given rise to philological battles over its meaning in ancient Greece.[33]
^However, in some instances a work has been cited in the explanation of why the award was given.
^Francis, Norbert (2017).Bilingual and Multicultural Perspectives on Poetry, Music, and Narrative: The science of art. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.ISBN978-1-4985-5183-0.
^Reece, Steve. "Orality and Literacy: Ancient Greek Literature as Oral Literature", in David Schenker and Martin Hose (eds.), Companion to Greek Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2015) 43–57.Ancient_Greek_Literature_as_Oral_LiteratureArchived 1 January 2020 at theWayback Machine
^See, e.g., Thomas Conley, Rhetoric in the European Tradition (University of Chicago, 1991).
^See, for instanceParlor, Burkean; Johnstone, Henry W. (1996). "On schiappa versus poulakos".Rhetoric Review.14 (2):438–440.doi:10.1080/07350199609389075.
^Green, M.W. (1981). "The Construction and Implementation of the Cuneiform Writing System".Visible Language.15 (4):345–372.
^Jacobs 1888, Introduction, page xv;Ryder 1925, Translator's introduction, quoting Hertel: "the original work was composed in Kashmir, about 200 B.C. At this date, however, many of the individual stories were already ancient."
^Ryder 1925 Translator's introduction: "ThePanchatantra is aniti-shastra, or textbook ofniti. The wordniti means roughly "the wise conduct of life." Western civilization must endure a certain shame in realizing that no precise equivalent of the term is found in English, French, Latin, or Greek. Many words are therefore necessary to explain whatniti is, though the idea, once grasped, is clear, important, and satisfying."
^Gavin Flood sums up mainstream estimates, according to which the Rigveda was compiled from as early as 1500 BC over a period of several centuries.Flood 1996, p. 37
^Lutgendorf, Philip (1991). The Life of a Text. University of California Press. p. 1.
^Chadwick, John (1967).The Decipherment of Linear B (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 101.ISBN978-1-107-69176-6. "The glimpse we have suddenly been given of the account books of a long-forgotten people..."
^Elizabeth L. Eisenstein,The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge University Press, 1980
^Margaret Anne Doody,The True Story of the Novel. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
^Polenz, Peter von. (1991).Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart: I. Einführung, Grundbegriffe, Deutsch in der frühbürgerlichen Zeit (in German). New York/Berlin: Gruyter, Walter de GmbH.
^Clapham, Michael, "Printing" inA History of Technology, Vol 2.From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, edd. Charles Singeret al. (Oxford 1957), p. 377. Cited fromElizabeth L. Eisenstein,The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge University, 1980).
^Forsas-Scott, Helena (1997).Swedish Women's Writing 1850-1995. London: The Athlone Press. p. 63.ISBN0485910039.
^...remains the most translated Italian book and, after the Bible, the most widely read... by Francelia Butler,Children's Literature, Yale University Press, 1972.
^Lyons, Martyn. 2011. Books: a living history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
^Sullivan, Patrick (1 January 2002). ""Reception Moments," Modern Literary Theory, and the Teaching of Literature".Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.45 (7):568–577.JSTOR40012241.
^Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, "Popular Fiction Studies: The Advantages of a New Field".Studies in Popular Culture, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Fall 2010), pp. 21-3
^John Sutherland (13 October 2007)."Ink and Spit".Guardian Unlimited Books. The Guardian.Archived from the original on 11 November 2007. Retrieved13 October 2007.
^Makin, Michael; Kelly, Catriona; Shepher, David; de Rambures, Dominique (1989).Discontinuous Discourses in Modern Russian Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 122.ISBN978-1349198511.
^Cullingford, Cedric (1998).Children's Literature and its Effects. London: A&C Black. p. 5.ISBN0304700924.
^Riches, John (2022) [2000]. "The Bible in high and popular culture".The Bible: a Very Short Introduction. Volume 14 in Very Short Introductions Series (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press (published 2021). p. 115.ISBN978-0198863335.Archived from the original on 23 February 2022. Retrieved23 February 2022.In its various translations, [the Bible] has had a formative influence on the language, the literature, the art, the music of all the major European and North American cultures. It continues to influence popular culture in films, novels, and music.
^Finnegan, Ruth H. (1977).Oral poetry: its nature, significance, and social context. Indiana University Press. p. 66.
^Magoun, Francis P. Jr. (1953). "Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry".Speculum.28 (3):446–467.doi:10.2307/2847021.JSTOR2847021.S2CID162903356.(subscription required)
^Alison Booth; Kelly J. Mays."Glossary: P".LitWeb, the Norton Introduction to Literature Studyspace. Archived fromthe original on 18 March 2011. Retrieved15 February 2014.
^Eliot T.S. 'Poetry & Prose: The Chapbook. Poetry Bookshop: London, 1921.
^For discussion of the basic categorical issues see (Preminger 1993, "Narrative Poetry").
^Sommerville, C. J. (1996).The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information. Oxford: OUP. p. 18.
^"Essay on Romance",Prose Works volume vi, p. 129, quoted in "Introduction" to Walter Scott'sQuentin Durward, ed. Susan Maning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. xxv. Romance should not be confused withHarlequin Romance.
^ab"The Novel".A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature.Brooklyn College.Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved22 February 2014.
^Franco Moretti, ed. (2006). "The Novel in Search of Itself: A Historical Morphology".The Novel, Volume 2: Forms and Themes. Princeton: Princeton UP. p. 31.ISBN978-0-691-04948-9.
^Antrim, Taylor (2010)."In Praise of Short".The Daily Beast.Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved15 February 2014.
^Stim, Rich (27 March 2013)."Copyright Basics FAQ".The Center for Internet and Society Fair Use Project. Stanford University.Archived from the original on 11 June 2018. Retrieved21 July 2019.
^Lee A. Hollaar."Legal Protection of Digital Information". p. Chapter 1: An Overview of Copyright, Section II.E. Ideas Versus Expression.Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved25 October 2020.
^The Statute of Anne 1710 and the Literary Copyright Act 1842 used the term "book". However, since 1911 the statutes have referred to literary works.
^"University of London Press v. University Tutorial Press" [1916][full citation needed]
^Agency for Cultural Affairs.環太平洋パートナーシップ協定の法律）(PDF) (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs.Archived(PDF) from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved4 January 2019.
^Ulysses has been called "the most prominent landmark in modernist literature", a work where life's complexities are depicted with "unprecedented, and unequalled, linguistic and stylistic virtuosity".The New York Times guide to essential knowledge, 3d ed. (2011), p. 126.
Allan, Sarah (1991).The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China. SUNY Press.ISBN978-0-7914-0460-7.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Foster, John Lawrence (2001).Ancient Egyptian Literature: An Anthology. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. xx.ISBN978-0-292-72527-0.
Frei, Peter (2001). "Persian Imperial Authorization: A Summary". In Watts, James (ed.).Persia and Torah: The Theory of Imperial Authorization of the Pentateuch. Atlanta, GA: SBL Press. p. 6.ISBN9781589830158.
Goody, Jack (2006). "From Oral to Written: An Anthropological Breakthrough in Storytelling". In Franco Moretti (ed.).The Novel, Volume 1: History, Geography, and Culture. Princeton: Princeton UP. p. 18.ISBN978-0-691-04947-2.
Bonheim, Helmut (1982).The Narrative Modes: Techniques of the Short Story. Cambridge: Brewer. An overview of several hundred short stories.
Gillespie, Gerald (January 1967). "Novella, nouvelle, novella, short novel? — A review of terms".Neophilologus.51 (1):117–127.doi:10.1007/BF01511303.S2CID162102536.
MAZZEO, T. J. (2012). Some Caveats about Postulating a Regency Literature. Keats-Shelley Journal, 61, 57–64.http://www.jstor.org/stable/24396035
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