〈南柯太守傳〉是唐傳奇記夢之作的佼佼者，為歷來的學者所稱誦，然對於它的敘事藝術手法深入的探討，卻付之闕如。本文嘗試以俄國的形式主義學者湯瑪謝夫斯基所提出的「動機」觀念，探析其所以出類拔萃之處，即分別以關於情節單位功能的「故事動機」、人物和情景描寫的「寫實動機」、敘述因素創新的「藝術動機」，和傳達意念的「題旨動機」，探討〈南柯太守傳〉的敘述形式和基此形式所構設意義之特色。於探討的同時，參照了〈南柯太守傳〉淵源所自的兩篇志怪小說《幽明錄‧楊林》和《妖異記‧盧汾》，以及唐傳奇〈枕中記〉，以突顯出〈南柯太守傳〉在同類題材中精進的表現。經由本文的分析，得知作為一篇敘事，〈南柯太守傳〉巨有非常強大的故事動機、寫實動機、藝術動機和題旨動機，且彼此間並未有扞格的情況，導致全篇故事情節有機而繁複的緊密結合，人物形象鮮明可感，塑造出讀者發現意義的空間和接受敘事真實性的效果，極具藝術的感染力，並合蘊了多重的意旨，以一創意無限的夢境，揭示了人生的真實。總之，本文以小說修辭的種種手法檢視了〈南柯太守傳〉的敘事動機，具體地展現它在小說敘事美學上的成就。

Although the Nanketaishouzhuan has long been known by scholars to be one of the finest examples dream story in the chuanqi tradition, there has been no discussion to date of narrative techniques in the work. This paper will use the Russian formalist Boris Tomashevskij's notion of motivation to discuss the narrative form of this work and the meaning created therefrom, particularly compositional motivation in terms of the function of elements of the story, realistic motivation in terms of descriptions of characters and scenery, artistic motivation in terms of innovations in narrative elements, and topical motivation in terms of the expression of the main points of the story. Discussion also uses two zhiguai stories that served as sources for this work, Yanglin recorded in the Youminglu and Lufen in the Yaoyiji, as well as the Tang chuanqi story Zhenchongji to accentuate the improvements made in this work over similar works of fiction. Analysis of these pieces shows that as a narrative work, compositional, realistic, artistic, and topical motivation is very clear in this work and works well together to create an organic and complex story, vivid and realistic characterizations, and creates room for readers to discover meaning at the same time as helping them to accept the authenticity of the story. This work is highly artistic and contains multiple levels of meaning while using a highly creative dream to point to the true nature of human existence. In short, this paper looks at the narrative motivation of the Nanketaishouzhuan to demonstrate its accomplishments in terms of the aesthetics of fictional narrative.