‘Literature’ is often thought of as a kind of thing. You can even come across people arguing that some text ‘is’ or ‘isn’t’ literature.
This is a thought-tool (see my ‘Tools of thought’) that needs sharpening. Or redirecting. ‘Literature’ isn’t any kind of thing—a category of being, like a person or a tree. It’s a category of consideration.
Take anything made of words. and you can consider it as literature. Weigh up the implications of the following sentence: “Looked at as literature, the telephone directory is repetitive and predictable—but it’s useful if you want to look up someone’s telephone number.” (I apologise to visitors younger than me, who may not know what a telephone directory was.) The sentence makes perfect sense, and it helps us grasp (and use) the concept ‘literature’ appropriately. We consider something as literature when we look for qualities which make it worth reading in its own right, not for what we can get out of it.