「瀕死與死亡」之探討在主題學上是一個跨文化、跨學科之研究領域，然而從文學的角度論述本議題之著述仍相當少。本論文試著以三本十九世紀末的作品，托爾斯泰1886年中篇小說《伊凡．伊列區之死》，梅特林克1890年之獨幕劇《闖入者》以及史尼慈勒1894年的中篇小說《瀕死》為探討之對象，以當時熱門的題材疾病、死亡來呈現生、死一體的事實以及詮釋此三位作家如何表現出不同形態，不同意義的瀕死與死亡；瀕死之意境為何？死亡在作品中呈現之面目、圖象為何？作家書寫之意圖又為何？

The theme ‘dying and death’ is an important intercultural and interdisciplinary research topic, but nevertheless few critics seem to address it from a literary point of view. Therefore my intention in this research project is to analyze Tolstoy’s nouvelle Der Tod des Iwan Iljitsch (1886), Maeterlinck’s drama Der Eindringling (1890) and Schnitzler’s short novel Sterben (1894), to investigate how ‘dying’ and ‘death’ present themselves in different ways and show different meanings. I am interested in how death acts and pictures itself, how the dying of the protagonists give voice to its meaning; and precisely how these authors use this theme in their works.