Literature

Literature (or lit for short) is a major academic subject in the quizbowl distribution. In ACF and similar distributions, literature questions typically take up about 20 percent of the questions in a given packet. Together with science and history, literature is one of the Big Three categories.

Literature questions are typically written on any/all fictional work from ancient times to the present, though philosophical dialogues and religious/mythological writings are often separated out into RMP. However, NAQT includes mythology and religious literature as subcategories of literature rather than splitting them out. The literature category is usually subdivided by culture (American, British, European, and World literature being the usual divisions) and by type of literature (prose, drama, and poetry, with prose including novels and short stories.) Questions or clues on literary criticism are also usually grouped under the literature distribution. Pop culture books (The Da Vinci Code, etc.) children's literature (Harry Potter, etc.), and sci-fi/fantasy (A Game of Thrones, Ender's Game, etc.) are generally not considered literature and are instead grouped as trash, although NAQT includes children's literature and young adult literature in its literature distribution in its high school and middle school questions.

Types of Literature Tossups

Work

The answer in these questions is a single literary work.

Author

Author-based tossups give descriptions of a number of different works by a single author. Excessive use of biographical clues is discouraged.

Common Link

These types of tossups ask for a theme or element that is present in a number of different works.