Literature is the sum of all written works in various forms in a language and reflecting traditions and cultures.

The Major Forms of Literature:

Literature is divided in four major forms, these are Poetry, Drama, Narrative Fiction and Prose. 

• Poetry: Poetry is written in the context of original and personal wording. Often poetry can be understood to be, quite simply, the words of the poet, so the words you are reading are his words and thoughts.
  
  Of all forms of literature, poetry is possibly the oldest. In fact it established itself through oral circulation even before written words evolved in literature. Use of rhymes in poetry varies from country to country. While in Persian literature, poetry is mostly rhymed, the opposite that is lack of rhymes is observed in Greek poetry.
  
  However poetry can both be rhymed or non-rhymed, the latter being representative of modern literature. Dominance of non-rhymed poetry in modern literature may lead people to a perception that rhymes take away seriousness of the poetry. This view is debatable. A poet may choose any of the forms to structure his expression.
  
  
• Drama: Drama has a rich and varied history and a special, privileged place among the arts. It's so important that it's a major focus in literary study, even though most of it is intended to be performed rather than read. Drama can speak directly to the human predicament like no other form, or evoke a way out through stagecraft and symbolism.
  
  Because it's performed for an audience, drama reflects and expresses its cultural context in unique ways, depending on the religious, political and economic forces that shape it. It costs money, takes time and energy, and risks public censure and political censorship. Yet on the whole, drama is well worth the trouble.
   
• Narrative: In the beginning there was narrative. People used narrative to create and shape knowledge into a form they could remember and pass along. Then came written narrative. Knowledge held still, and people found that they could not believe all the narratives anymore, so they wrote new narratives about which narratives to believe for all time and which not to believe at all. But then people wrote narratives about how it does not make sense to believe any narratives for all time. And they all lived narrative ever after.
   
• Prose: Our contemporary conception of all of literary prose has a lot to do with our fascination with the lives, thoughts, opinion and personal experiences of good writers. Literary prose nonfiction might seem like a fairly simple and obvious category of writing: it's nonfiction in the sense that it is not "made up"; it is prose, not verse; and it is literary in that it is artfully, stylishy written for readers who want to be entertained as well as instructed. But as with all literature, literary prose's forms and conventions have evolved out of dissimilar predecessors.

Apart from the grammatical angle, this form of literature gets its strength not from the words but from stylish presentation of contents. However the dividing line between prose and poetry in literature sometimes gets blurred due to experimentations like prose in poetry forms and poetry in prosaic styles. Fiction in literature is expressed in various narrative forms like novels, short stories, etc. Fiction and short stories as forms of literary prose developed much later in the history of literature. The structures of these forms of literary expressions have now been formalized making word lengths as criterion.

Starting from mini saga which is of shortest length, the largest form is a novel. In literature, the term novel is casually used to denote a long story. Don Quixote by Cervantes written in early 17th Century is considered by many as the first example of a novel. Complexity of the plots and storylines found in a novel is one feature that clearly demarcates the structural difference of prose and poetry in literature. Drama which is basically conversation among the characters of the drama is also a form of literature. It is again distinguished from other forms of literature by its thematic base like comedy or tragedy.

The area of literature now also includes popular scientific writings including science fiction, journalistic writings and compositions on philosophy and history. They together are referred as non-fiction. However modern scientific writings including those on popular science are too technical for mass comprehension and cannot strictly be included in the domain of literature.

Likewise barring philosophical works of classical philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, etc. and some modern exceptions, writings by modern philosophers are too technical to warrant inclusion in the body of literature. It is also a matter of debate as to whether to include historical and journalistic writings as pieces of non-fiction literature. Since most of such writings are documentary in nature with information as the core content, it is better to include them more as exception than rule to preserve the purity of true literature. Similar arguments cannot be offered for religious scriptures if it mirrors the cultures and beliefs of group of people and have universal appeal.