Literature or The Literature

Hello friends!!

I asked this e-mail on another forum but got an answer I was dissatisfied with and was additionally locked out due to a technical glitch. The question:

1. Literature on this topic is vast.
2. The literature on this topic is vast.

I was told by an English friends that both are okay (zero article/definite article) because literature here is an abstract concept. I was told by another English speaker on that forum that "the" is right.

What's the deal?? I see examples of both written by educated native English speakers.

E.g.

"Unfortunately, literature on Iranian female immigrants is scanty." (Women, Religion and Culture in Iran, 2014).


"Indeed, in part 2, we see by analyzing selected novels that contemporary literature dealing with globalization often takes this more nuanced position". (Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies, 2010).


Thanks!!! 

Vic