The author embarks on analysing altered literary studies concepts in Poland of the recent few decades. He sees the reasons for such changes in the social, cultural, as well as methodological factors. Emphasised is the differing nature of the concept of literary studies' subject in the traditions of eastern-European and western-European literary scholarship. He believes that within this scholarship area of today, two different discourses tend to clash against each other. One of them strives for precision and specialisation, the other is aiming at free contemplation and at crossing any borders. In author's opinion, if our contemporary literary studies abandon the text as the basic area of investigation, in favour of cultural research, then literary study will get diluted in an all-inclusive 'humanities soup'. College departments such as cultural studies will accordingly regard literary scholars as not being in demand at all any more.