臺灣文學中的疾病書寫，頗受眾人矚目。其中，黃凡、陳映真、施叔青與張啟疆的疾病小說有些特別，嘗試透過疾病與身體變異，闡述獨特的「臺北風貌」，疾病自此成為臺北敘事的重要元素之一。這些作品藉著身體的疾病，傳達諷刺的意義，不單是為了展現都市繁華底下，最病態黑暗的一面；更為了借重疾病的題材，直指致病的源頭與資本主義重利的文化息息相關。本文以三個部分闡述這類小說的殊異性，其一「臺北意象：地景／物件／意象」，探討臺北的形象及記憶。其ニ「病患的意義：資本主義一文化病徵的顯影」，闡述疾病與都市文化的關聯性。第三部分闡述「諷刺的美學」，從敘事學（Narratology)與小說理論的角度，分析此類都市文學的特色與美學。最後從病徵探討臺北論述的意義，綜論這些作品的整體價值。

Disease Writing has attracted ample attention in recent Taiwan. Writers such as Huang Fan, Chen Ying-chen, Shih Shu-ching and Chang Qi-jiang are distinctive in that they all attempt to elaborate a unique outlook of Taipei city in terms of illness and body alienation. Because of their writing, disease has become one of the important elements of the Taipei narratives. Irony abounds in the writing because the representation of bodily diseases not only exposes the darkest and the most morbid underside of the bustling urban lives, but points to the mammon culture of capitalism as the source of disease. This paper deals with the characteristics of this kind of novel in three parts. Part One, titled “ The Image of Taipei: Landscape, Things and Images,” studies the image and memory of Taipei city. Part Two, “The Meaning of Disease and the Patient: Symptoms of Capitalism as Cultural Disease”, elaborates the relevance urban culture to disease. The last part concludes with an “aesthetics of irony,” in which the achievement this particular kind of urban literature is assesed in the context of narratology and theory of novel. It provides a symptomatic reading of Taipei discourse and an overall evaluation of its cultural meaning.