爲了開顯Clifford Geertz「文化乃文本」的理論視域，本文企圖以跨學科視 野，整合文學評論、詮釋學、民俗學和語言人類學等學科中有關文本的槪念建構， 其中包括Mikhail Bakhtin的「互爲文本」、Roland Barthes的「作者已矣」、Paul Ricoeur的「社會行動乃文本」，以及Richard Bauman和Charles L. Briggs的 展演理論。藉此，筆者希望能重新審思文化本體論與認識論，亦即在思考什麼是 文化之餘，也能兼論如何拾階登堂，發幽闡微，瞭解文化覃奧。
本文是以流傳於湖南省江永縣的女書爲分析素材，特別著重1930年代村婦珠 珠吿官訴請離婚的案例，說明此一事件如何在撰述、展演、閱讀、敍說、互爲文 本、時間，和行動者的生命感知這七大因素的交錯運籌下，演繹出多重不同風格 和寓意的文本(與次文本)，包括：展演文本、時間文本、以述爲作，和以作爲訴。 透過此一實例分析，本文指出，文本不僅是對生活現實的記錄與描述，且是象徵 或隱喩的組構。象徵與隱喩所具有的模糊與深晦特質激發了象徵體系的創化性，進 而使得文本成了孕育並開展各種不同解釋空間的社會場域和活水源頭。職是，文 化若乃文本，則欲瞭解文化所呈現的地方知識並劈理其內在的盤根錯節，吾人就 必須將觸角由象徵層面，延伸到象徵體系所具有的創化空間及該空間所築構的社 會場域。如此，或能在感受文化內在的深蘊理念之餘，亦能窺探其潛在動量與化生契機。

To open up the theoretical horizons of Clifford Geertz，s venturesome formulation of “culture as text,” in this paper I incorporate various textual perspectives developed in the fields of literary criticism, hermeneutics, folklore and linguistic anthropology, including Bakhtin’s “dialogics，” Barthes’ “the death of author，” Ricoeur’s “social action as text，” and Bauman and Briggs’ “poetics and performance.” To illustrate, I use the female-specific literature known as nilshu (female writing), which circulated exclusively among peasant women in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province, in south China. Specifically, I focus on an event taking place in the early twentieth century—a divorce claim made by a village woman called Zhuzhu, when she discovered only on her wedding day that her betrothed/husband was paralyzed. My research shows that “Zhuzhu” as a social event and a nushu text has generated various constructions of (sub)texts via the dynamic function of entextualization, reading, narration, performance, intertextualization, temporality, and personal contexts. This suggests that “culture as text” involves not merely metaphors and symbols whereby meanings, sentiments, and values are embodied and manifested, but is also a social field where heteroglossia and stereographic plural voices come into being; more importantly, it is a source of vitality by which change or transformation becomes possible. To “thickly describe” culture, I therefore call for a dynamic textual perspective, that is, one that examines the depths of metaphor in conjunction with how a text is intertextually read，narrated, and performed.