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Welcome! We are an encyclopedia project, and more. We are a different sort of Web 2.0 project: We aim at credibility and quality, not just quantity. We offer gentle expert oversight. We use our real names, not pseudonyms. We're collegial. We have added over 2,500 articles since Nov. 2006. Join us! Regular smart folks and experts—welcome! Response within 24 hours, guaranteed. Learn about us For readers: About the Citizendium For contributors: How to get started as an author Project Home Support us We're a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and we need your support. If you shop at Amazon or Barnes & Noble and you access these sites by the links provided here, we'll be getting donations at no cost to you (read more) - Search All Products		Some of our finest [ about ] Approved Articles Developed Articles (over 500) Article of the Week [ about ] Literature Unlike scholars in certain fields of learning, such as biology, where the boundaries are fairly well defined, those in the field of literature still debate exactly what the term means. When the celebrated 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica defined literature as “the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing,” few dared question it. Now, though, a century of such questioning has broadened the definition so that it can include nearly any text in any human language, even works in other media. Practically speaking, literature’s present-day definition is shaped by the perspective from which one regards it: scholars of a theoretical bent see it as embedded in questions of race, class, and gender, and highly variable over historical time, while those more aesthetically inclined tend to emphasize its continuity within traditions of arts and humane letters. One perspective typically mistrusts the other.