diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/boot/internal/SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.java b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/boot/internal/SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.java
index b595c7e160..4498fbf4b2 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/boot/internal/SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.java
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/boot/internal/SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.java
@@ -778,11 +778,8 @@ public class SessionFactoryBuilderImpl implements SessionFactoryBuilderImplement
 					true
 			);
 
-			this.criteriaLiteralHandlingMode = strategySelector.resolveStrategy(
-					LiteralHandlingMode.class,
-					configurationSettings.get( CRITERIA_LITERAL_HANDLING_MODE ),
-					LiteralHandlingMode.AUTO,
-					(clazz) -> LiteralHandlingMode.AUTO
+			this.criteriaLiteralHandlingMode = LiteralHandlingMode.interpret(
+				configurationSettings.get( CRITERIA_LITERAL_HANDLING_MODE )
 			);
 		}
 
diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/query/criteria/LiteralHandlingMode.java b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/query/criteria/LiteralHandlingMode.java
index 8b384ce017..bc640ce491 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/query/criteria/LiteralHandlingMode.java
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/query/criteria/LiteralHandlingMode.java
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
  */
 package org.hibernate.query.criteria;
 
+import org.hibernate.HibernateException;
+
 /**
  * This enum defines how literals are handled by JPA Criteria.
  *
@@ -25,5 +27,33 @@ public enum LiteralHandlingMode {
 
 	AUTO,
 	BIND,
-	INLINE
+	INLINE;
+
+	/**
+	 * Interpret the configured literalHandlingMode value.
+	 * Valid values are either a {@link LiteralHandlingMode} object or its String representation.
+	 * For string values, the matching is case insensitive, so you can use either {@code AUTO} or {@code auto}.
+	 *
+	 * @param literalHandlingMode configured {@link LiteralHandlingMode} representation
+	 * @return associated {@link LiteralHandlingMode} object
+	 */
+	public static LiteralHandlingMode interpret(Object literalHandlingMode) {
+		if ( literalHandlingMode == null ) {
+			return AUTO;
+		}
+		else if ( literalHandlingMode instanceof LiteralHandlingMode ) {
+			return (LiteralHandlingMode) literalHandlingMode;
+		}
+		else if ( literalHandlingMode instanceof String ) {
+			for ( LiteralHandlingMode value : values() ) {
+				if ( value.name().equalsIgnoreCase( (String) literalHandlingMode ) ) {
+					return value;
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		throw new HibernateException(
+				"Unrecognized literal_handling_mode value : " + literalHandlingMode
+						+ ".  Supported values include 'auto', 'inline', and 'bind'."
+		);
+	}
 }
diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/test/java/org/hibernate/jpa/test/criteria/literal/CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameLowercaseTest.java b/hibernate-core/src/test/java/org/hibernate/jpa/test/criteria/literal/CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameLowercaseTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..db2ff88ba6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/test/java/org/hibernate/jpa/test/criteria/literal/CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameLowercaseTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+/*
+ * Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
+ *
+ * License: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1 or later.
+ * See the lgpl.txt file in the root directory or <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html>.
+ */
+package org.hibernate.jpa.test.criteria.literal;
+
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import org.hibernate.cfg.AvailableSettings;
+import org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect;
+
+import org.hibernate.testing.RequiresDialect;
+
+/**
+ * @author Vlad Mihalcea
+ */
+@RequiresDialect(H2Dialect.class)
+public class CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameLowercaseTest extends AbstractCriteriaLiteralHandlingModeTest {
+
+	@Override
+	protected Map getConfig() {
+		Map config = super.getConfig();
+		config.put(
+				AvailableSettings.CRITERIA_LITERAL_HANDLING_MODE,
+				"inline"
+		);
+		return config;
+	}
+
+	protected String expectedSQL() {
+		return "select 'abc' as col_0_0_, abstractcr0_.name as col_1_0_ from Book abstractcr0_ where abstractcr0_.id=1 and abstractcr0_.name='Vlad''s High-Performance Java Persistence'";
+	}
+}
diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/test/java/org/hibernate/jpa/test/criteria/literal/CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameUppercaseTest.java b/hibernate-core/src/test/java/org/hibernate/jpa/test/criteria/literal/CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameUppercaseTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..17def5a97d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/test/java/org/hibernate/jpa/test/criteria/literal/CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameUppercaseTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+/*
+ * Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
+ *
+ * License: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1 or later.
+ * See the lgpl.txt file in the root directory or <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html>.
+ */
+package org.hibernate.jpa.test.criteria.literal;
+
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import org.hibernate.cfg.AvailableSettings;
+import org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect;
+import org.hibernate.query.criteria.LiteralHandlingMode;
+
+import org.hibernate.testing.RequiresDialect;
+
+/**
+ * @author Vlad Mihalcea
+ */
+@RequiresDialect(H2Dialect.class)
+public class CriteriaLiteralHandlingModeInlineShortNameUppercaseTest extends AbstractCriteriaLiteralHandlingModeTest {
+
+	@Override
+	protected Map getConfig() {
+		Map config = super.getConfig();
+		config.put(
+				AvailableSettings.CRITERIA_LITERAL_HANDLING_MODE,
+				"INLINE"
+		);
+		return config;
+	}
+
+	protected String expectedSQL() {
+		return "select 'abc' as col_0_0_, abstractcr0_.name as col_1_0_ from Book abstractcr0_ where abstractcr0_.id=1 and abstractcr0_.name='Vlad''s High-Performance Java Persistence'";
+	}
+}