This text deals with some inconsistencies in literary studies concerning the material and circumstantial conditions of the graduate system in Brazil. Similar academic activities in the United States serve as the comparative standard. The article discusses the growth of the state of the art and its (in)formative role. It also analyzes academic journals as a product used to evaluate the graduate programs. Finally, it ponders about the value, circulation and reception of the research that supports the academic debate in literary studies. The conditions and needs of graduate education and the research analyzed here can also occur in the humanities as a whole.