臺灣四面環海的地理條件宜於發展海洋文學，但早期文學作品中，海洋通常只是背景，直至九○年代，由於廖鴻基與夏曼．藍波安二人積極從事海洋散文的創作，海洋文學一度令人充滿期待，但目前似乎再度面臨發展瓶頸，其原因之一是海洋文學往往被當作「自然寫作」的一股支流，彷彿具有出海經驗者才有發聲的正當性。本文認為「海洋文學」若要成為一個「文學類型」，不能以題材或創作者身份做為劃分依據，應當具有此一文類之獨特特質。故筆者考察當代散文中涉及海洋書寫的文本，嘗試爬梳出臺灣海洋文學的特質所在，除了分析廖鴻基、夏曼．藍波安二位代表作家的作品，指出他們筆下的海洋精神強調謙虛和薪傳，顯然有別於西方渴望征服海洋的態度；並放寬海洋文學的範圍，納入岸上觀海者的細膩想像與深刻感慨，分析其中海洋所引發的人文義蘊，試圖重構一幅當代臺灣海洋散文的圖像。

Taiwan is an island surrounded by the ocean, thus it is advantageous to develop Ocean Literature. Ocean Literature often is classified as a category of Natural Writing, which requires the author to have actual natural experience. However, if only those who have experience with voyages are supposed to write, it might inadvertently restrict the development of such literature. In this article, Ocean Literature is regarded as a sub-genre, parallel to National Writing and Native Literature. The author reviewed the writing involving ocean among contemporary prose, especially those written by Hong-zi Liao and Hsiya-man. Lan-po-an, two representative writers of ocean prose. The contents and purposes of their writing were discussed. In addition, the author expanded the scope of the Ocean Literature to cover writings by the ocean observer on shore who described their fine imagination and deep feeling about the ocean. This review analyzed the humanism inspired by the ocean, and proposed to reconstruct the figure of contemporary ocean prose.