The present M.A. thesis, Theoretical elements on literature teaching, aims at understanding the literary phenomenon which transcends its textual configuration. It keeps in sight the update of literature teaching in high school (medium level). In order to achieve such goal, this research analyses theoretical tools developed by the Reception Aesthetics and the so called Empiric Science of Literature. It evaluates the opportunity of transferring those models to the space of the school, as an innovative pedagogical strategy capable of renewing the act of teaching. In such sense, this thesis intends to offer ways to deal with a still present tradition and the renewal proposals in the field of didactics concerning the literary phenomenon and its historiography.