Abstract: The appearance of the tendency of cultural study in China has its own complicated social and cultural backgrounds.The reason lies in both the history and the reality of literature. It has also been deeply influenced by the current thoughts of Western cultural study.But the current cultural study is quite different both from the totality study in the past and from the Western cultural study today.Therefore,the three Marxist principles of totality,criticizing and esthetic should still be considered as the guiding principles when we carry on the cultural study of literature.

Key words: literature study, cultural study, Marxist literature criticism