My paper will focus on the evolution of the relations between theory and philosophy in theoretical thinking about comparative literature. What does a contemporary theory of literature purport to do, and how does it construct its objects in a rapidly evolving field of practices, where the relation between global and local, mainstreams and margins has evolved as well? Resting on a few instances of recent critical reassessments of theoretical issues about comparative literature, I will endeavor to outline the consequences this evolution has on the way theoretical thinking about literature can account for itself today.