從1980年代開始出現的「台灣後現代小說」，有其多變豐富的面貌，可說是本土後現代文化中，相當有代表性的一個側面。在本文中，首先追溯後現代主義概念在歐美世界的早期起源，並且探究在高度工業化、全球化、資訊化的當代世界中，後現代文化的社會性格。而在本土的脈絡中，我們則是能看到，除了全球資本主義引起的社會變遷，台灣的後現代文化其實也是長程殖民歷史的產物。除了歷史社會背景外，本文也試著進一步去界定台灣後現代小說中的主要四種文類，以及該文類的主要形式特徵。本文的觀點是，儘管後現代主義有其西方性格，但是在移植到本土世界後，「台灣的」後現代小說其實充滿在地色彩，同時銘刻了資本主義現代性與多重殖民歷史的軌跡。

With its arrival in the 1980s, Taiwan postmodern fiction has shown a variety of features and become one of the major aspects of our local postmodern culture. This article aims to trace the early origin of postmodernism in the West and sketches out the social aspects of postmodern culture in the contemporary world of highly industrialization, globalization and informationalization. In the local context, it is apparent that aside from the social changes brought forth by global capitalism, the postmodern culture in Taiwan is actually a legacy of the long-term colonial history. In addition to describing its socio-historical background, this article also aims to define the four major genres of Taiwan postmodern fictions as well as their major formal features. This article argues that despite its Western characteristics, postmodernism, after being transplanted into the local context, has been imbued with local colors and meanwhile inscribed with its trajectory of capitalistic modernity and multiple colonial histories.