This paper is concerned with literature as a phenomenon that people talk and write about for various purposes, e.g. for the purpose of sharing opinions with friends or of giving a piece of literature positive or negative value in a community. First I will briefly explore how literature has been characterized, suggesting that it needs to be viewed holistically from different vantage point. To Develop the characterization from the point of view of the context in which works of literature operate, I will introduce a typology of fields of activity within context--specifications of what is going on in a given context, interpreting literature as text operating in contexts where the activity is one of "recreating" aspects of life. Then, using the typology of fields of activity, I will turn to the main concern of the paper--discourse about literature, or the nature of what people say and write about literature. I will examine examples of histories, interviews with writers, admission interviews and reviews. Before concluding, I will briefly explore the nature of an analytic, descriptive and explanatory approach to literature interpreted as verbal art, i.e. art made out of language.