The article's aim is to present the romantic phenomenon of fragmentary literature in view of some of Jacques Derrida's ideas, mostly his project of hauntology and his writings on the parergon and its role in art. Bearing in mind that early romanticism is the birthplace of modern literary theory (and also, even more importantly, of literature as theory), the author presents a wide range of approaches towards the fragment, including both the era's thinkers and some modern philosophers and theorists, such as Agata Bielik-Robson or Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. Derrida's philosophy corresponds with some of those and deconstructs others; overall, it helps to formulate a theory that goes past the strict formula of romantic fragment and sheds new light on literary open forms being written to this day, especially in the context of a fragmented, paradoxical modern subject expressing itself and its complex condition.