This article presents an evaluation of the advantages and risks involved in moving from a didactic perspective centred on linguistic models to didactic approaches based on anthropological dimensions. This movement, developed for teaching language and literature in France 20 years ago, proposes a change from a text-object or language-object approach to one which takes into consideration the subject and his representations, and so centres on the question of culture. The obstacles to implementing this approach are described as both didactic and professional in nature. Finally, this article invites the reader to reconsider some of the elements in teacher training.