With some experience of teaching English in college behind me, I would like to make this paper a preliminary attempt to consider the study of literature from the perspective of English Language Teaching ( ELT). It is preliminary because this is an area which has been neglected in recent discussions of English teaching, while practice has continued to relate the two. Because this is a question which has been little discussed in relation to current English teaching theory, this paper will be essentially philosophical and discursive in approach. It will also attempt a consideration of approaches to literature teaching in principle, reduced to basic categories which may be helpful to teachers, in order to set in context the difficulties teachers meet with in ELT in China. Some constructive approaches are being discussed as well as some suggestions on improving literature teaching in ELT forwarded.