The paper discusses the role of literature in the foreign language classroom. Whereas different methods of foreign language teaching have become an integralpart of graduate programmes, reading and discussing literary texts in the foreign language classroom are far from being a norm. Out of the conviction that literary texts are an integral part of teaching a (second) foreign language, the author pleads for the exposure of the texts' aesthetic criteria without reducing them to their linguistic, grammatical or lexical component. One of the most important reasons for unease and uncertainty in dealing with literary texts in the classroom are teachers' inadequate competences, which is why it is so very important that the study of a foreign language also offers methods for teaching literature in the foreign language classroom. Tha paper discusses some models which could be useful for developing the literay competence of university students studying to be teachers.
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