本文指出：「外文研究」的出現與十九世紀中葉以降的西學東漸密不可分；它不只標示近代中國文學觀念的轉變以及殖民現代性的到來，更承載了「溝通中外、再建文明」的使命，代表了現代中國知識份子企圖以文學思想的譯介來適應與超克殖民現代性的努力。因此，與其將外文研究定位為一門研究西方文學與文化的學問，不如將之理解為一個文化與思想的邊境，是不斷跨界迻譯、比較批判、尋求文明改造的知識實踐。因此，我們應該賦予外文學門之「外」一個動態的理解，視之為進入與引介現代性的自我翻譯與超越，亦是對現代性本身的改寫與重述。

This article argues that the emergence of foreign literature studies in China and Taiwan has much to do with the advent of Western knowledge. It marks a moment of transition in the history of Chinese literature and the arrival of colonial modernity. Rather than designating foreign literature studies as a study of the West, I contend that viewed in contexts, it is more productive to rearticulate it as the frontier of culture and thought, and as a border-crossing practice of knowledge production and cultural transformation. The study of foreign literature is as much an introduction to modernity through translation as a critical rewriting of modernity itself.