Definition of literature getting hazy

I agree with Yolanda’s point that when looking at The Wire, we cannot focus on the language alone. The precision an author uses to make sure every word sounds a certain way, and conveys the intended message is the same way the directors of The Wire worked on the images and language used in the show. Like the majority of people that have not gotten a chance to study the meaning of literature, I believed that a no brainer about literature is that it needs to use words. This class is starting to change my views on that. However, a problem I still have with this whole idea is the role the audience gets to play. When reading a book, although the author describes the book so the audience understands, we still end up creating our own world with our imagination. Whatever picture we associate with the book is our own creation, and it makes us more involved in the creative process. When we are watching a film piece we feel has literary merit, we do not have to use our imagination as much. The whole process seems way more passive than reading.
Now that we are considering films to be a part of literature, where do we place silent films like Metropolis? The movie has absolutely no words, but the director is able to use facial expressions, body language, and music to communicate to us what the people are feeling, thinking, and saying (which is amazing since, remember, we can’t hear them.) After a while, I find myself wondering where the limit is. What is it that separates literary material from non literary material? Something that has always been on my mind is where Art fits in all of this. By Art I mean for example a simple painting. Kryzs said that we can submit art work as work samples if we wanted to, so what does that really mean. My head seriously hurts now; it is like thinking about what it would be like to live in a black hole, just mind boggling. Literature is sometimes a work of art, so is art ever literature? I guess I feel like I have no concrete idea to stand on (sounds a lot like post-structuralism.) Just one yes or no answer to stabilize me a bit is all I ask. (Is the sky always blue? Just kidding, do not answer that.)