The discipline of Literature and Art is the ninth batch of doctoral degree authorized by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the provincial key discipline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan of Jiangsu Province. The master's degree has been established for many years. This discipline now has four doctoral supervisors and five professors, all holding a doctor’s degree. The Doctoral Program of Literature and Art has three research directions: literary theory, literary aesthetics, and Chinese literature and art. It has formed its own advantages and features in academic research and postgraduate teaching, which has an impact on academic circles at home and abroad. In the past five years, it has undertaken more than ten scientific research projects, including six national projects, three provincial projects and one key university construction project in Jiangsu Province which receives five-million-yuan research fund. More than ten works have been published, and more than 180 papers have been published in academic journals such as Social Sciences in China, Literary Review, and Literature and Art Studies. As many as 60 papers have been reprinted and copied by Xinhua Digest, China Social Sciences Digest and Replicated Journals of Renmin University of China. The achievements of scientific research include one Outstanding Achievement Award of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education and three Outstanding Achievement Awards of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Jiangsu Province.

For more than half a century, the research of literary theory has engaged itself in teaching and research of literature and art, developing an advantage of long history, good quality and strong foundation. From the early 1990s, it gradually formed literary and artistic sociology, a relatively obvious and stable feature, from which the current literary art and aesthetic culture can be illustrated, defined and reviewed. It has published Contemporary Sociology of Literature and Art, Critique of Contemporary Aesthetic Culture, Ontology of Aesthetic Literature and Art, and Reconstruction of Contemporaneity and Literary Tradition, etc. In Social Sciences in China, Literary Review, Literature and Art Studies, and other authoritative publications many essays have been published, including Literariness and the Re-recognition of Literary Essence, On the Power of discourse of Literary Theory, Literary Tradition and Scientific Tradition, The development of Modern Literary Theory in China from the Perspective of Key Words, The Expansion of Aesthetics: the Aestheticization of Ethical Life, and so on.

The research direction of literary aesthetics discussed early on the general principles of literary aesthetics. And it has made eminent achievements and innovations in the research of the nature, objects and scope of literary aesthetics, subject orientation, theoretical framework, category system, research methods, literary department aesthetics, and Marxist Literary Aesthetics, etc. Published works include Laughter and Comedy Aesthetics, Tragedy Aesthetics, Research on the Category of Literary Aesthetics, Multidimensional Thinking of Contemporary Literary Aesthetics, and Cultural Interpretation of Chinese Drama Aesthetics. Papers published by Guangming Daily and Academic Monthly include On the Subject Orientation of Literary Aesthetics and The Legality of Literary Aesthetics, and so on.

On the basis of the basic theories of Chinese literary studies, the research of Chinese literature and art focuses on the study of literary thoughts and is devoted to revealing the role of the evolution and integration of refined and popular literature in the development of literary thoughts. It carries out theoretical discussions on narrative study, stylistic study, language study and cultural study. Published works include Preliminary Study of Chinese Aesthetics and Probings into Artistic Conception. Several papers have been published by Literary Review and other publications, such as Modern Popular Novels: the Evolution and Integration of New and Old Novels.

This key discipline was set against a profound academic background due to the solid foundation laid by the systematic study of literary theory by Prof. Tan Fochu as well as poetics study by Prof. Wang Guowei. Recently, this discipline has witnessed a wide range of research diversity. In particular, some academic frontiers manifested distinctive research characteristics. There are, for example, literary sociology research, contemporary aesthetic culture research and literary theory research conducted by Prof. Yao Menfang; Chinese literature and art study by Prof. Gu Geng, as well as literary linguistics study by Dr. Chen Xueguang.