本篇論文英文原版寫作於八○年代末，藉由分析活躍於台灣五○年代到七○年代之間兩個不同世代小說家的作品，來探討現代主義潮流在台灣當代文學史上的意義。前半闡述「老一代」作家如何受到當時主導文化的制約，後半則試圖歸納現代派小說藝術形式的主要特性。文章目的在於論證現代主義潮流開啟了一個意義深遠的美學認知轉換及創作取向上的變革。切實理解這個「美學革命」如何展現於文本層次，應是探討更為龐大複雜的「現代性」議題所必備的基礎。

The English original of this essay was written in the late 1980s. Through discussing works by two generations of writers active in Taiwan between the 1950s and the 1970s, it explores the implications of the Modernist literary movement in contemporary Taiwanese literary history. The first half of the essay deals with the ways writings of the “older” generation of writers were constrained by the politically instituted dominant culture at the time, while the second half describes key features in the new artistic forms introduced by the Modernist fiction writers. The purpose of the essay is to argue that a meaningful and far-reaching aesthetic reorientation occurred as a result of the Modernist literary trend. A solid understanding of how this “aesthetic revolution” took place at the level of textual production ought to serve as basis for more ambitious explorations of diverse, complex issues pertaining to “modernity.”