1949年起中國大陸與台灣之間所逐漸形成堅固的對峙機制，或許可以用韓國思想家白樂晴的分析概念「分斷體制」來描繪，五十年後，雖然這個體制在弱化當中，但早已深入社會身體的主體性構造。自1960年起的四十多年來，分斷及其克服初步成為陳映真思想與文學核心關切的主題，甚至是具有籠罩性的前提命題。分斷體制牽扯龐雜，本文嘗試將分析聚焦於一個切面：外省失鄉人，指稱的是1949年以後從大陸遠離家鄉流亡台灣的人，他們存在的特性在於，他們不同於一般在國內暫住他鄉的外地人，也不是移居國外的移民，而是因為國家內部的政治分化造成的強制性遷移，有家歸不得。相對而言，「外省人」沒法孤立存在，他的對應關係是「本省人」，在陳映真筆下是在家鄉歷經滄桑的「淪落人」。理解外省人與本省人的精神處境與困境，可以說是陳映真在台灣內部克服民族分斷的實踐。本文透過細讀陳早期的小說〈貓牠們的祖母〉（1961），〈將軍族〉（1964）、〈一綠色之候鳥〉（1964）、〈第一件差事〉（1967）、〈永恆的大地〉（1966），〈纍纍〉（1967），中期的〈夜行貨車〉（1978）、〈雲〉（1980），與近期的〈歸鄉〉（1999）與〈忠孝公園〉（2001），重新勾勒外省人在半世紀的歷史進程中生命與政治道路的起伏。本文試圖在思想上深化對於第三世界精神狀況的理解。

From 1949 onward, a solid set of antagonistic mechanisms was gradually established between Taiwan and Mainland China, which can be conceptualized, in Korean thinker Paik Nak-chung’s terms, as the formation of a “division system.” Fifty years later, the system is weakening and in crisis, but the long term effects remain deeply seated in social body and the structure of subjectivity. Since the 1960s, division system (and its overcoming) has been at the center of Chen Yingzhen’s thought and literature to the extent that it has become a presupposition encompassing all his work. Due to the complexity of the division system, this essay focuses on only one plane of the problematic subject: waishengren or mainlander who lost their home. Waishengren refers to those who moved from their mainland homeland to be “in exile” in Taiwan. Different from the situation of “diaspora,” they are neither immigrants dwelling in a foreign territory, nor temporarily residing in other parts of one’s own country, but are forced to move by the political conflicts within ta nation, and hence cannot return to their home. In relational term, waishengren co-exists with benshengren, i.e. people “native” to the Taiwan island. To understand the difficult mental conditions of both waishengren and benshengren has been Chen Yingzhen’s practice to overcome the division of the nation within Taiwan. This essay reads closely Chen’s stories written over the time span of forty years, starting from the earliest “Cats and Their Grandma” (1961), via “The Cloud” (1980) of the middle period, to the latest “Loyal-Filial Park” (2001). With an attempt to give an account of the lives and political paths of waishengren, the essay contributes to a deeper understanding of the mental conditions of life in the Third World.