Developing Literary Competence with Hemingway’s Short Story

Abstract

This article explains how to develop literary competence (i.e. the ability to interpret – identify and decode – literary texts), the ability to identify various  literary types, genres and forms, and their special features, and use literary knowledge and respond empathically to what is read. It also looks at the ability to experience, imagine, evaluate and critically reflect on the material read, to verbalize one’s own thoughts, emotions, opinion and reflections on the material, and ultimately develop a positive attitude towards fiction. It presents how literary competence can be developed with differentiation for high schools and technical secondary schools, using the example of the exceptionally open, yet communicative, Ernest Hemingway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants. This story has not yet been included in neither the literature instruction teaching materials nor syllabuses, therefore the article presents the proposed learning objectives, that could be attained using this text, for both programmes separately. It also recommends several effective methods and ways of working with this text (e.g. close reading).