Abstract: Internet literature's most profound influence on Chinese literary theory lies in its technical rewriting or replacing to the institutional genealogy of literature developed over many centuries. In terms of subject identity, internet literature, by adopting a grass-root standpoint, usurps the discourse power of the elite literary production. In terms of writing mode, the freedom of writing subverts existing order in literary production field. In terms of quantity of texts, internet literature has outnumbered and concealed the classics and literary canons, while in terms of value judgment the overt commercialism in the internet media has been able to compete with the established appeal of literariness. The traditional logical standpoint of literature is suspended by the technical priority in the inheritance of literary concepts. All these, the paper concludes, have resulted in a game play between traditional literary theory and media technical rules, and then push into the frontline the transformation of literary theory.

Key words: Internet literature, institutional genealogy of literature, theoretical logic, dialectical thoughts