Casting String to Literal?

I have a bunch of literals, named lit0 thru lit20, corresponding to a row number returned by a datatable (e.g. row("rownumb")).
What I'd like to do is assign some text based on that information.  How can I cast a text, e.g. (non-working code):
Dim lit As Literal = DirectCast(Me.Controls("lit" & row("rownumb"), Literal)
Hopefully it makes sense. 
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