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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to literature:

Contents 1 What is literature? 1.1 What type of thing is literature? 1.2 Essence of literature 2 Forms of literature 2.1 Oral literary genres 2.2 Written literary genres 2.2.1 Non-fiction 2.2.2 Fiction genres 3 History of literature 4 General literature concepts 5 Literary awards 6 Persons influential in the field of literature 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

What is literature?

• Literature – prose, written or oral, including fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry. See also: outline of poetry.

What type of thing is literature?

• Communication – activity of conveying information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space.
  • Written communication (writing) – representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols (known as a writing system).
• Subdivision of culture – shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization, or group.
  • One of the arts – imaginative, creative, or nonscientific branch of knowledge, especially as studied academically.

Essence of literature

• Composition –
• World literature –

Forms of literature

Oral literary genres

• Oral poetry –
  • Epic poetry –
    • Legend –
    • Mythology –
    • Ballad –
• Folktale –
• Oral Narrative –
  • Oral History –
  • Urban legend –

Written literary genres

• Children's literature –
• Constrained writing –
• Erotic literature –
• Poetry (see that article for an extensive list of sub-genres and types)
  • Aubade –
  • Clerihew –
  • Epic –
  • Grook – form of short aphoristic poem invented by the Danish poet and scientist Piet Hein, who wrote over 7,000 of them.
  • Haiku –
  • Lied –
  • Limerick – a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line anapestic or amphibrachic meter with a strict rhyme scheme (aabba), which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent.
  • Lyric –
  • Ode –
  • Rhapsody –
  • Song –
  • Sonnet –
  • Speculative poetry –
• Prison literature –
• Rhymed prose –
  • Saj'
    • Maqama
  • Fu (literature)
  • Rayok

Non-fiction

• Autobiography –
• Biography –
• Diaries and Journals –
• Essay –
• Frame Narrative –
• In Medias Res –
• Literary criticism –
• Memoir –
• Outdoor literature –
• Spiritual autobiography –
• Travel literature –

Fiction genres

• Adventure novel –
• Airport novels –
• Comedy –
• Parody –
• Satire –
• Crime fiction –
  • Detective fiction –
    • Hardboiled –
    • Whodunit –
  • Newgate novel –
• Erotica –
• Fable –
• Fairy tale –
• Family Saga –
• Frame story –
• Gothic –
  • Southern Gothic –
• Historical fiction –
• Inspirational fiction –
• Invasion literature –
• Mystery –
• Philosophical literature –

Inspirational fiction (religious literature) –

• Psychological novel –
• Psychological thriller –
• Romance (heroic literature) –
• Romance –
  • Historical romance –
    • Regency romance –
  • Inspirational romance –
  • Paranormal romance –
• Saga –
• Speculative fiction –
  • Alternate history –
  • Fantasy – (for more details see Fantasy subgenres, fantasy literature)
    • Epic fantasy –
    • Science fantasy –
    • Steampunk –
    • Urban fantasy –
    • Weird fantasy –
  • Horror –
    • Lovecraftian horror –
    • Weird menace –
  • Science fiction – (for more details see Science fiction genres and related topics
    • Cyberpunk –
    • Hard science fiction –
    • Space opera –
  • Supernatural fiction –
• Sensation novel –
• Slave narrative –
• Thriller –
  • Conspiracy fiction –
  • Legal thriller –
  • Spy fiction/Political thriller –
  • Techno-thriller –
• Western fiction –

History of literature

• History of the book
• History of theater
• History of modern literature
• History of science fiction
• History of ideas
• Intellectual history

General literature concepts

• Literature –
• Western canon –
• Teaching of writing:
  • Composition –
  • Rhetoric –
• Poetry –
  • Prosody –
  • Meter –
  • Scansion –
  • Constrained writing –
• Poetics –
  • Villanelle –
  • Sonnet –
  • Sestina –
  • Ghazal –
  • Ballad –
  • Blank verse –
  • Free verse –
  • Epic poetry –
• Prose –
  • Fiction –
  • Non-fiction –
  • Biography –
• Prose genres –
  • Essay –
  • Flash prose –
  • Journalism –
  • Novel –
  • Novella –
  • Short story –
• Theater –
  • History of theater –
• Literary criticism –
• Rhetoric –
  • Metaphor –
  • Metonymy –
  • Symbol –
  • Allegory –
• Basic procedural knowledge
  • Poetry analysis –
  • effective reasoning in argument writing
• Narratology
  • False document –
  • Frame tale –
  • Anecdote –
  • Point of view –
• Literary criticism – an application of literary theory
  • Marxist literary criticism –
  • Semiotic literary interpretation –
  • Psychoanalytic literary interpretation –
  • Feminist literary interpretation –
  • New historicism –
  • Queer literary interpretation –

Literary awards

• List of literary awards
• List of poetry awards

Persons influential in the field of literature

• List of authors
• Category:Literary critics
• List of writers
  • List of women writers

See also

• Lists of books
• English studies

References

External links

Find more about Literature on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• This outline displayed as a mindmap, at wikimindmap.com
• Yahoo! Directory listing for Literature
• The Internet Public Library listing for Literature
• Nobel Prize in Literature

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