Abstract: Under the background of deconstructionism, contemporary literary anti-essentialism has posed questions such as: what is the theory about the essence of literature and how does it become possible? To answer these questions, one needs to study the connotation and possibility of theories about the essence of literature from an ontological perspective. The essence of literature refers to the being of literature. The theory about the essence of literature is thus the theoretical interpretation of being of literature, which is also the primary subject of literary studies and the metatheory of literary theory. The ontological area on which the theory about the essence of literature is based exhibits a dialectical unity of such three areas: "what literature is", "how literature is" and "the being of literature". An investigation of the ontological theory about the essence of literature enables us to have insight into the legitimacy basis and boundary of various relevant theories. When the essential power of theory about the essence of literature has been released, the studies of literary theory and even literature could have original foundation.

Key words: the essence of literature, the being of literature, literary studies, literary anti-essentialism