This essay aims to examine the attitudes and motivation toward literary studies in English in upper secondary school students as well as to determine which tools practicing teachers can apply to increase their students’ language learning motivation within literature teaching in the Swedish curriculum. The questions that this study set out to answer was: How do students rate their ability to succeed in different tasks relating to English literary education? How can teachers in Sweden design their lessons in English literature to motivate their students? Which are some of the best ways to teach literature to students from a motivational standpoint? The primary theories used in this study are; self-efficacy theory and theories regarding intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This study used a qualitative method to examine the students’ attitudes towards reading English literature in schools. The research tool used is a questionnaire with both general questions regarding literature in addition to questions about how the students would rate their chance to succeed with a task relating to literary studies. This study found that one of the primary methods that teachers should apply when teaching literature to EFL students was giving the students a choice in reading material as well as using age-appropriate material. Using shorter texts such as short stories and extracts from novels was also a method that the students’ preferred. This study showed that using standardized testing is the least preferred examination method to use when assessing the students. On the other hand, the preferred examination methods were writing book reports, essays or using group discussions or answering study questions. Furthermore, it is important for the teacher to know the group and plan accordingly and listen to the students and give them a choice in what they read and how to assess them at the end of the literary module to give the students a greater chance of success.