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Abstract:: Since the beginning of the 21st century, literary studies have undergone a so-called“ event turn” ,which is informed by the rise of the event theory and performativity theory in the philosophy, arts and culturalstudies. In particular, the philosophical theories of event advanced by Deleuze and ?i?ek, characterized by theirrespective emphases on the generative and transformative aspects of event, constitute the major theoreticalsource for the theorization on the event of literature. From the perspective of event, the core task of literarystudies is to explain the singularity of literature, which calls for a new understanding and analysis of literature.The issues that will be under close scrutiny include: the writer’s intentions and the intentionality of the text, thebecoming of the text, and the performance of reading. Different from the concept of literature as representation,the theory of literature as event places emphasis on the following issues: the process of author’s writing, theliterary language as performative, the mediality of literature, the uses of reading, and the effects of literatureon reality. The thrust of this theory is thus to regard the becoming and effects of literary works as the two keyfeatures of literature.