吳趼人的社會小說在晚清佔有重要的地位，晚清小說最具代表性的特徵就是出現了為數龐大，以批判社會問題為內容的作品，其《二十年目睹之怪現狀》在《新小說》上以「社會小說」之名連載，奠定了「社會小說」之典型特色。雖然吳趼人沒有對「社會小說」正面立說，但他創作大量的小說，並在《月月小說》上使用此名、刊登這類作品，以書寫、編輯行為，對建構「社會小說」的概念內涵起著推波助瀾的作用。 吳趼人的社會小說呈現多元靈活的特點，在創作手法上，不論是情節結構、敘事模式，都有著各種不同的樣貌。處理題材的方式亦是如此，這些批判社會黑暗面的作品，或概觀或聚焦，展現吳趼人在處理、選擇題材上的眾多面向，內容所涵蓋的層面相當多樣，所描繪的廣度深受矚目。但是不止如此，他也試圖在小說中提出政治、文化觀點，表現對社會與時局的關切、中國的未來，以及自身文化定位等議題的思考。 因此藉由這些小說，不但可以考察吳趼人眼中的晚清社會是何種狀態，更能進一步探究這位身處新舊交替的小說家，面對時代衝擊時，展現著什麼樣的思想面貌。 Wu Jian-Ren was a famous novelist in the late Ch’ing dynasty. Although researches on his novels have been broadly made, studies concerning his social novels have not been completely explored yet. Furthermore, previous studies had shown that there were many social problems to be highlighted in the late Ch’ing novels, so it is necessary to study Wu Jian-Ren’s novels from the genre of social novel. This study aims to explore Wu Jian-Ren’s aspects on social phenomenon through analyzing his seven social novels, which were grand representatives in the late Ch’ing novels. These novels also showed specific artistic techniques and varieties in the choices and treatments of subject. The results show that these articles can be divided into three categories, the first one is to highlight various social problems; the second one is to present particular social problem; the third one is to show his aspects on politics and cultures. In this study, we can further understand him about what social problems he concerned, and how to present these social phenomena and criticize them.
