Abstract: The essentialism /anti-essentialism dispute is a continual problem in the Western philosophy.The revised essentialism is more convincing than the anti-essentialism.Some literature researchers propose literature anti-essentialism by accepting the anti-essentialism.However,they have not considered the differences between essentialism and theory of essence.They have overlooked the failure of anti-essentialism in the west esthetics,and have misread the essentialism of some important western literature researchers.Therefore,there might emerge some new essentialism in literature research.

Key words: essentialism, theory of essence, history of philosophy, literature research