Explainer: Are Bob Dylan's Songs 'Literature'?

Bob Dylan has won this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. The media has reported on this surprising choice by asking musicians, poets, and writers if Dylan’s songs are indeed “literature”. Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting (1993), made it clear on Twitter that he didn’t think they were: If you’re a ‘music’ fan, look it up in the dictionary. Then ‘literature’. Then compare and contrast.