The term German-language literature or German literature refers to the literary works in German from the German-speaking area of the past and present. It begins with the Old High German Merseburg spells in the middle of the 8th century. In the broadest sense, the totality of all texts in the German language are counted among the German-language literature. According to a narrow concept of literature, German-language texts belonging to the major genres of drama, epic and poetry, as well as linguistically selected self-testimonies, including autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, letters, as well as essays, literary travel books, works of philosophy such as historiography and speeches with stylistic brilliance, are attributed to German-language literature.