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「文明」的磋商：1930年代臺灣長篇通俗小說──以徐坤泉、林煇焜作品為例 = Negotiating 'Civilisation': Popular Fiction from Taiwan in the 1930s - Taking Xu Kunquan's and Lin Huikun's Works as Examples

This paper investigates how the concept of “civilization” is mediated through the popular novels of Xu Kunquan (1907-1954) and Lin Huikun (1902-1959). Employing a close reading, it reevaluates the two writers’ works from sociological, literary, and women-centered perspectives. It first problematizes the term “civilization” and then examines Xu’s and Lin’s visions toward “civilization”. Emphasis is placed on the following four aspects: attitudes toward love and marriage, notion of religion, cultural intertextuality and materiality of daily life, and envisioning Taiwan. It argues Xu’s and Lin’s novels eschew anti-colonial nationalism and modernist aesthetics, displaying an everyday/popular modernity that challenges the lowbrow-highbrow division.