西西，一個在台灣文壇崛起的香港女作家，在華文界秉持著寫作的樂趣耕耘了很久，於2005年獲得了「花蹤世界華文文學獎」給了她實至名歸的肯定，西西的小說向來以「變化瑰奇」著稱，堪稱華文小說中前衛的實驗性作家。本論文將聚焦於西西「故事新編」的作品，這種依據舊文本「重寫」、「再創作」的寫作方式，一直是古今中外的文人創作的方式之一，在既定的經典作品中取材，如何脫穎而出而不至於流於篇幅的增刪，或只是重述舊文本的思考模式，而能給予新的時代意義，西西有極出色並多樣的呈現。首先，第一章先探討「故事新編」類小說的源流，以及不同的名稱、說法，統整學者們同根異枝的論點。第二章則可以看到她藉經典意有所指的為她現今的生存環境發聲，對比古今，希望今人藉「故」事提取教訓，展現時代應有的進步；並對古代另一種文字記錄者——史官，致上最高的敬意。第三章則就集結了「故事新編」的短篇創作《故事裡的故事》，作專章的討論，每一則短篇在為弱勢族群發聲之餘，著重在西西如何嘗試各種說故事的手法，開展讀者的視野。第四章探討西西以圖為文的故事新編，西西藉圖重現當時的故事，這種跨媒介的「文本互涉」是西西所擅長的手法。「故事新編」類的作品中，可以看到西西大量閱讀古今中外的名家作品，信手拈來的將閱讀而來的豐富啟發置入自己的小說中，以讀者的姿態，向經典之作發出質疑。Xixi is a writer who lives in Hong Kong and became known to readers in Taiwan in about 1983. She has committed herself totally to the pleasure of writing and after years of serious effort was honored with the ‘Flora Traces: World Chinese Literature Prize’ in 2005. A very well justified acknowledgement of her work. Xixi’s fiction is well known for its ‘enchanting metamorphosis’ and she is one of the cutting-edge experimental writers of Chinese fiction. This dissertation will focus on Xixi’s Story Re-writes, a genre of writing that re-creates existing text. This is a well known creative practice quite common among the ancient and contemporary Chinese literary writers and prevalent across the world. Inspiration is taken from known classical rewrites. The secret lies in making the new work stand out from the original without reducing it to mundane text revision, a word count change or paraphrase. The purpose should be to inject the original central frame of thought with a refreshing epoch-specific significance. In that respect the work of Xixi stands out with diverse range of form and presentation. In Chapter I the origin of ‘story re-writes’ as a fiction genre is explored, as well as its different names, while presenting integrated argument of the divergent or unifying view of different scholars. Chaptor II sees Xixi deploy references from history and classic text to serve as a ‘voice’ for our present living environment in the hope that her contemporaries will draw lessons from the ‘prior’ text and move forwards in step with time. The highest tribute is also paid to the alternative text scribes of ancient times… the historiographers. Chapter III includes a compilation of short stories, “Story within a Story’, as a part of ‘Story Re-writes’ and conducts specific discussion that goes beyond the story’s purpose. It becomes a mouthpiece for disadvantaged groups and centers on Xixi’s use of different story-telling techniques to expand the readers’ horizon. Chapter IV explores Story Re-writes that use graphic illustration as the text, a technique Xixi relies on to re-enact stories in relation to how they unfolded at the time. This is a cross-disciplinary intertextualizing technique at which Xixi is highly adept. As can be seen in the work of ‘the Story Re-write’ genre, one can see that Xixi is well acquainted with famous international classics of the past and present. Ideas and thoughts inspired in the process of reading them have readily found their way into Xixi’s own fictional creations. This is Xixi’s way of expressing her stance as a reader and voicing a challenge to the classic texts.
