1. Written works including poems, dramas, and novels which have high significance and lasting importance: Shirley is taking courses in history and English literature all of which are providing her with an appreciation for well-known authors, such as Shakespeare.
2. Books, articles, etc., about particular subjects: Such written discourses in the fields of medicine, science, and technology can also be considered to be literature.

A class of Jewish and Christian writings beginning about 250 B.C. and continuing into the opening centuries of A.D.: The purpose of apocalyptic literature was to comfort the faithful in their suffering conditions, and reconcile those conditions with God's righteousness by prefiguring the future triumph of Israel or the Messianic kingdom.

The best-known Christian apocalyptic literature is the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible.