The research object of literary theory revisited

Revisiting the research object of literary theory facilitates the scientific understanding of the form of literary theory. Literary theory is thetheory’ aboutliterature’. It is therefore generally held that its research object is literature. However, literature refers to both literature of written text and literature of phenomenon. Locating the relationships and rules among various literary factors, therefore, is more important for determining the content of literary study. Meanwhile, the determination of the research object of literary theory lies in the literary nature and the own prescriptive influences arising from the literary theory itself. This taken into consideration, the research object of literary theory can be examined comprehensively, from which three views can be developed.