Literary work in the context of "Non-fiction"

In a literary work, film, or other narrative, the plot is the mapping of events in which each one (except the final) affects at least one other. Plot is similar in meaning to the term storyline. Simple plots, such as in a traditional ballad, can be linearly sequenced, but plots can form complex interwoven structures, with each part sometimes referred to as a subplot.

E. M. Forster described plot events as relating through the principle of cause-and-effect; the causal events of a plot can be thought of as a selective collection of events from a narrative, all linked by the connector "and so". According to American science fiction writer Ansen Dibell, the term plot highlights important points which have consequences within the story, in the narrative sense. The premise sets up the plot, the characters take part in events, while the setting is not only part of, but also influences, the final story.

A lost literary work (referred throughout this article just as a lost work) is a document, literary work, or piece of multimedia, produced of which no surviving copies are known to exist, meaning it can be known only through reference, or literary fragments. This term most commonly applies to works from the classical world, although it is increasingly used in relation to modern works. A work may be lost to history through the destruction of an original manuscript and all later copies.

Works—or, commonly, small fragments of works—have survived by being found by archaeologists during investigations, or accidentally by laypersons such as, for example, the finding Nag Hammadi library scrolls. Works also survived when they were reused as bookbinding materials, quoted or included in other works, or as palimpsests, where an original document is imperfectly erased so the substrate on which it was written can be reused. The discovery, in 1822, of Cicero's De re publica was one of the first major recoveries of a lost ancient text from a palimpsest. Another famous example is the discovery of the Archimedes Palimpsest, which was used to make a prayer book almost 300 years after the original work was written. A work may be recovered in a library, as a lost or mislabeled codex, or as a part of another book or codex.

Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author, content, or form of the work.

A musical setting is a musical composition that is written on the basis of a literary work. The literary work is said to be set, or adapted, to music. Musical settings include choral music and other vocal music. A musical setting is made to particular words, such as poems. By contrast, a musical arrangement is a musical reconceptualization of a previously composed work, rather than a brand new piece of music. An arrangement often refers to a change in medium or style and can be instrumental, not necessarily vocal music.

Texts commonly used in choral settings include the mass and the requiem in Western Christianity, and the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the All-night vigil in Eastern Christianity. Examples include Mozart's Great Mass, and Leontovych's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.