An examination of the ways in which the literary text has been used in foreign language programs during the last 15 years revealed that literature has been seen to play a series of separate and mutually exclusive roles, often at the expense of the student who is perceived as either a "foreign-language learner" or as a "reader of foreign literatu¡e". This paper attempts to show how literature should play but a single, multidimensional role in the foreign language teaching context, to describe how these dimensions are interconnected, as well as to demonstrate how the literary text, when seen from a holistic perspective, constitutes a resource for enhancing the personal and academic growth of the student.