A Definition of Literature?

Although a lot of people talk about literature it is hard to say what the term actually denotes. There is no such thing like a well-defined term. Basically, there are two ways of how to define expressions, that is either extensional or intensional.

Extensional definitions use the process of listing all items which belong to a special concept. As an example, it is possible to define the concept of chairs in a specific room by using an extensional approach. With reference to literature this is impossible to do. Think only of such borderline cases like popular literature, comics, or an Old English text like Wulfstan's Sermo Lupi ad Anglos. Concerning intensional definitions there are more ways than one as how to proceed, which are to be looked upon in more detail.

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