這篇論文試圖從記憶的角度切入，檢視啟蒙與十八世紀書信體例之間的交纏。透過幾本在十八世紀引領風潮的書信體小說，筆者論證這些小說如何在一方面在內容與形構上力求貼近真實，另一方面所展現出的寫作主體卻又是斷裂與錯置的，似乎是對於理性主體所作出的省思，並藉此分析十八世紀書信體的寄存之間又是如何與這般失了根的、詭異感的、自我遺棄的啟蒙相互影響。

Jürgen Habermas suggests that with the rise of the epistolary genre, the eighteenth century finally feels at ease in the terrain of subjectivity. The study contends, however, that the Enlightenment subjectivity is never self-enclosed but fragmentary at best. Indeed, the sub-texts that one reads in Locke, Rousseau, and Kant reveal that these philosophical minds are constantly baffled by the discrepancy between memory and writing, reason and passion, to name a few. Through the study of eighteenth-century epistolary novels, such as Clarissa, Julie, and Evelina, one can start to see how the demand for authenticity by epistolary writers turns their attentions to the uncanniness of the human subjectivity and its displacement of the functions of memory.