Backed Against the Sea (Cornell East Asia, No. 67) (Cornell East Asia Series)
by 王文興
Category: Literary Collections

本輯選譯臺灣文學現代派作家王文興的兩篇小說、六篇散文，以及七篇論文。除了兩篇新近「出土」和發表的小說外，特別介紹作家過去鮮為人注意，有關作家成長過程、思想理念、宗教信仰的散文，和其多種文藝評論，呈現他對中國古典文學、電影、書法、英文小說的研究和寫作觀點，有助於英文讀者對王文興全面的認識。 Wang Wen-hsing is an internationally renowned modernist writer who has long been regarded by Taiwan writers as a bellwether of literary aesthetics. His reputation rests on his devotion to an innovative literary language and writing style, demonstrated primarily in his novels. His persistent pursuit of an ideal style has challenged standard aesthetic views of Chinese literary language and conventional reading strategies. He views writing much as he does painting, music, or any other art form: while acknowledging the importance of content, he foregrounds the form. His fictional works, therefore, are not only pieces of creative writing but also creative artworks; each word and sign should be appreciated like a musical note in a song or a brush stroke in a painting. This ideal pushes him constantly to search out a more precise method to describe a specific subject, and each new method he develops is added to the reservoir of Chinese rhetoric. Due to his peculiar approach, he writes extremely slowly. During the past three decades, he has been able to write only thirty-some characters a day. To date, he has published twenty-three short stories, one novella, three novels (the second novel is in two volumes), one one-act play, three volumes of essays, and numerous poems, prose works, translations, and pieces of criticism. 王文興是台灣文學現代派的代表作家。王文興以獨特的語言風格，聞名於文學界，他對文學藝術的忠誠，數十年不改其志，廣受國內外學界和文壇的崇敬。由於其千錘百鍊的創作手法，王文興的寫作速度極其緩慢，近三十多年來維持一天三十個字的紀錄。直至目前他的著作包含了二十三個短篇小說，一個中篇，三部長篇（第二部有上下兩冊），一篇獨幕劇，三本散文集，和諸多未集結成冊的散文、詩歌、翻譯以及評論文章。王絕非多產作家，但作品篇篇如同精雕細琢的藝術品，耐人品味。其高度實驗性的寫作手法，挑戰讀者的閱讀，但又回報以無以倫比的美感享受。在華文文學的世界，獨樹一格，散發出璀璨的光芒。