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[[Image:Narnia books.jpg|right|thumb|230px|The Chronicles of Narnia]]
[[Image:Narnia books.jpg|right|thumb|230px|The Chronicles of Narnia]]
'''Literature''' consists of writings whose value lies in the beauty of form or emotional effect. <ref>The Concise Oxford Dictionary</ref> Traditionally, this encompasses such diverse forms of expression as [[novel]]s, [[poetry]], and others. [[Literary criticism]] is usually itself considered a form of literature.
'''Literature''' consists of writings whose value lies in the beauty of form or emotional effect. <ref>The Concise Oxford Dictionary</ref> Traditionally, this encompasses such diverse forms of expression as [[novel]]s, [[poetry]], and others. [[Literary criticism]] is usually itself considered a form of literature.
While [[epic poetry]] is a form of artistic expression, it is generally considered that literature began with the recording of such epics, rather than their oral recitation. In ancient [[Mesopotamia]], the development of [[ideogram|ideographic]] glyphs allowed the recording of the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]] in the city of Akkadia for an Assyrian king in the seventh century B.C., arguably the first piece of literature that we possess today. It was preceded by multiple other items of literature that we know of, such as the [[Egypt|Egyptian]] [[Book of the Dead]], but while Egyptologists believe this to have been recorded as early as the eighteenth century B.C., extant copies date from 250 B.C.<ref>Diamond, Jared. ''Guns, Germs, and Steel.'' New York: Norton, 2005.</ref>
== See also ==
== See also ==