關於朱天心作品的討論，過往多集中在其作品對記憶、歷史、認同等向度的書寫與思考，但「死亡」亦可說是理解朱天心作品時不容忽視的關鍵字。本文擬從三個方向探討朱天心作品中關於死亡主題的書寫，從中亦可窺見朱天心作品風格的某種轉變：從早期《擊壤歌》、〈天之夕顏〉、〈時移事往〉對死亡的美化，到 〈鶴妻〉、〈預知死亡紀事〉和〈拉曼查志士〉中表現出對死亡強烈的困惑與焦慮，已可看出死亡敘述在朱天心作品中的重要性。父親過世之後所寫的《漫遊者》一書，更可看出她如何努力地探究死亡的秘密。這些作品不只是在試圖找出死亡的答案，也呈現出朱天心對存在議題思考的軌跡。

Discussions about Zhu Tianxin’s texts used to focus on the topics of memory, history or identification. Actually, death should also be considered as a keyword if we want to explore Zhu’s texts further. This paper intends to investigate how Zhu’s different texts reflect her different attitudes towards death. In her earlier works, she tries to beautify death; later she reveals the anxiety and puzzlement brought by death. In The Flâneur, the work triggered by her father’s death, she moves one step further by inquiring the mystery of death and even to approximate this impossible situation. This paper thus seeks to explore how Zhu deals with the question of being by addressing the topic of death.