literature

plural literatures · alternative lit. · alternative literatuer

1. uncountableusuallyThe body of all written works.
2. uncountableusuallyThe collected creative writing of a nation, people, group, or culture.

   world literature

   4 more examples

   He’s studying English literature at university.

   There’s a vast body of scientific literature on the subject.

   classical literature

   scientific literature

3. uncountableusuallyusually preceded by theAll the papers, treatises, etc. published in academic journals on a particular subject.

   In fact, information on when each of the terms first appeared in English, and if obsolete, how long they persisted, is entirely absent from the literature.

   2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 3

   1 more example

   The obvious question to ask at this point is: ‘Why posit the existence of a set of Thematic Relations (THEME, AGENT, INSTRUMENT, etc.) distinct from constituent structure relations?ʼ The answer given in the relevant literature is that a variety of linguistic phenomena can be accounted for in a more principled way in terms of Thematic Functions than in terms of constituent structure relations.

   1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 7, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 373

4. uncountableusuallyWritten fiction of a high standard.

   2008, Adam Cadre However, even “literary” science fiction rarely qualifies as literature, because it treats characters as sets of traits rather than as fully realized human beings with unique life stories.

   Synonyms: literary fiction

5. obsoleteuncountableusuallyLiteracy; ability to read and write.

   They all assumed to be mighty rakish and knowing, they were not very tidy in their private dresses, they were not at all orderly in their domestic arrangements, and the combined literature of the whole company would have produced but a poor letter on any subject.

   1854, Charles Dickens, Hard Times: A Novel