In this paper, through examining Janet Alsup’s A Case for Teaching Literature in the Secondary School, I explored the problem on aims and objectives for literature instruction, and considered a radical question, “why reading literature in Japanese language arts curriculum still matters?” Alsup also considered such a question with rich references from studies on literature instruction in US, cognitive psychology, primatology, cognitive narrative studies, and so on. Alsup provide a view of literature instruction in secondary schools with considering a question, “what literature can DO?” She found out four essentials by investigating contemporary literary pedagogy, these are, “identification,” “empathy,” “critical thinking,” and “social action.” As conclusion, I suggested that we should learn from educational suggestion in various disciplines, i.e., critical pedagogy, education of social justice, problem-based learning, or service learning, for developing more fascinating lessons of literature. For nurturing students to the holistic readers, and providing them to the holistic preparation for life, literary reading and responding in literature instruction could be still matters. Encouraged from Alsup’s affirmation, I concluded that we should have further explorations of the functions of literary works for eliciting students’ discoveries for living. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP15H03503

本研究はJSPS科研費JP15H03503の助成を受けたものである。