This article discusses the notion that three radically different deep structures operate in literature education today, providing a useful way to examine and describe a culture's influence on its literature curricula. The structures are identified as (1) imitative--assumes that literature forms a heritage and that reading, absorbing, and imitating that heritage will transmit cultural values to the young; (2) analytic--stresses the development of students' critical faculties and their abilities to comprehend, analyze, and respond to works studied; and (3) generative--stresses individual and personal growth through reading rather than the development of critical skills. Data collected in a number of countries by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) are analyzed with reference to these curriculum structures, and patterns or typologies of national literature curricula are identified. (AEA)