本文將以回應晚近外文學者對外文研究領域之知識生產與學門建制的反思為切入點，來探討理論知識在外文建制中的位置及其實踐的議題。藉由這些最新關於外文學門建制歷史的爬梳及對外文研究對象的提問，筆者試圖將當代不限定對象的「理論」放在「外文研究」如何回應一波波西方思潮的歷史脈絡下，以「改革」這個議題連結不同時間點的反思：「理論」在成為合法的研究對象之後，亦即理論知識在外文學術建制中佔有一席之地後，是否已失去其前瞻性及現實的議題性？「理論」在台灣是否仍具有引介歐美思潮之餘的「批判與改造自身」之歷史意識？「理論」究竟是個清楚的標籤、屬性、和學院位置，還是一個「依稀模糊的方向與理想」？而除了思索「何謂理論」的問題外，我們是否也需面對「為何理論」的提問？本文也將檢視在改革浪潮中以「進步」力量自許的「理論」與「常識」之間的關係，探討理論介入、回應現狀常識、催生新常識的可能。透過這些議題的探討，本文最終嘗試提出以下對理論的看法（或說是願景）：首先，理論曾經是、也應該是一種改革論述。再者，理論不應僅僅是一個外文研究的對象（雖然它當然是眾多研究對象之一）；理論既逸出既定之研究對象之外，故可以是促使新研究對象、領域和典範冒現之思維與驅力。理論的生產與實踐繫於本地知識主體折衝各方思想衝擊，跨越不同文化與認知型態間的翻譯和比較，其批判與回應之對象同時是本土也是外來。

Starting from critical responses to both the series of debates on the “death of theory” in Western academia and the latest efforts in Taiwan to rethink the conditions of local (re)production of knowledge, this essay reflects on the current status of “theory” in Taiwan by reexamining the historical context in which “theory” was first introduced, disseminated, and appropriated by local intelligentsia in the early years of post-martial law Taiwan. The relentlessly selfproblematizing penchant in Western theory and the urgent call for reform in the greater socio-political milieu converged to give rise to the “theory boom” in Taiwan in the 1990s, thereby rendering the dominant strain of theoretical thought a “reformist discourse.” It is on account of theory’s potential for being a reformist discourse within and outside the academy that we should rethink the relationship between theory and its unlikely ally, common sense. Taking my cue from Gramsci’s somewhat paradoxical conception of the continuum between common sense and theory, I argue that theory emerges from the inherently porous, inconsistent, even contradictory field of common sense. Rather than suturing the latter’s constitutive fissures, theory should perform the difficult task of “witnessing” the history of the present—the often forgotten meaning of theoria—on their intersecting fault lines.