Abstract
Our paper is a continuation of a small-scale research started in 2012, on the importance of literature in our lives and materialized, so far, in a paper on the didactics of English literature from the perspective of the student-centred approach to education (Boghian, 2012). This paper is the result of a questionnaire-based inquiry aiming to highlight the reasons for which we read/ we do not read literature nowadays and the answer to the question: Do we still need literature? Our findings reveal the fact that the greatest enemy of literature is, nowadays, lack of time: lack of time due to long days at work, family responsibilities and the impact of the Internet and the new communication technologies on our lives. However, all the respondents believe that society needs literature as it promotes human values and moral guidelines. Nevertheless, a relevant number of the respondents are pessimistic regarding the future of literature, with part of them answering that it will survive only under certain circumstances.
Key words: literature, questionnaire-based inquiry, values