My proposal is that we remove all three paragraphs of apologies and hedging quoted in the question, and replace them with the following:

We interpet ‘literature’ in a broad sense, including written, spoken and sung works of cultural and artistic interest, in all genres, languages and forms: poetry, plays, stories, novels, lyrics, comic books, essays, belles-lettres, and so on.

I’ve tried to keep this short and clear, without caveats and technicalities, and used ‘including’ (not ‘consisting of’), and ‘interest’ (not ‘importance’) in the hope of leaving plenty of room at the edges and avoiding rules-lawyering. But please suggest corrections and improvements!

Sources:

• spoken — see ‘Does oral literature count as literature here?’
• sung, poetry, lyrics — see ‘Are songs and poems on-topic?’ and ‘Are operas considered literature on this site?’
• all genres — see ‘What do we do with science fiction and fantasy?’
• essays, belles-lettres — see ‘What types of non-fiction are on topic?’
• comic books — see ‘Should graphic novels be on topic?’

My proposal is that we remove all three paragraphs of apologies and hedging quoted in the question, and replace them with the following:

We interpet ‘literature’ in a broad sense, including written, spoken and sung works, in all genres, languages and forms: poetry, plays, stories, novels, lyrics, comic books, essays, belles-lettres, and so on.

I’ve tried to keep this short and clear, without caveats and technicalities, and used ‘including’ (not ‘consisting of’) in the hope of leaving plenty of room at the edges and avoiding rules-lawyering. But please suggest corrections and improvements!

Sources:

• spoken — see ‘Does oral literature count as literature here?’
• sung, poetry, lyrics — see ‘Are songs and poems on-topic?’ and ‘Are operas considered literature on this site?’
• all genres — see ‘What do we do with science fiction and fantasy?’
• essays, belles-lettres — see ‘What types of non-fiction are on topic?’
• comic books — see ‘Should graphic novels be on topic?’