作為鄉土書寫的前行者，黃春明與鄭清文於九○年代前後分別寫就《放生》（1999）與《天燈‧母親》（2000），依然浸染著生命歷史的本源──作家與宜蘭羅東、桃園舊鎮的親密關係，只是鄉土概念與敘事邊界顯然已有變貌。不管是執持對昔日鄉土小說的賡續／接通，或撤退／斷裂的立場，《放生》與《天燈‧母親》皆可稱之為「後農村」書寫。就文化論述的前綴詞「後」（post）字義而言：一為「曾經經歷」（having gone through），一為「之後」（after），兩者均攸關「時間」命題，乃意味曾經經歷過而已然成為現在生活中殘存之意識形態與文化影響。《天燈‧母親》一書，是鄭清文歷經童年農村時代之後，所召喚與體現關於過去的意識，然而在自然韻致的想像鋪展中，卻含藏後現代性能量的敘事與暗示。黃春明《放生》集中刻繪鄉村「閒暇階級」──除了閒暇時間外，一無所有的老人軼事光影，顯然也是一種面對進步與異化時代的「焦慮書寫」，透視且託寓的並非「農村重現」的輝耀，而是「農村已死」的殘破。如是而觀，黃春明、鄭清文的新鄉土書寫，並非喚起鄉土小說傳統的幽靈，反倒是藉由後農村書寫，而使鄉土小說的焦距得到微調與校準。

From the perspective of postmodernism, an examination of the narration of the folk novels, The Release (Huang Chun-Ming 1999) and The Lantern and Mother (Tzeng Ching-Wen 2000), shows that these two novels can be categorized as the “post rural” writing regardless of their insistence on the continuity of the folk novel or the abrupt departure from the folk novel legacy. The prefix word “post” have dual meanings: one is having gone through and the other is having happened after some events. Both meanings are related to time and don’t have any conflict: they also mean the things which have gone through and now become ideology and cultural influence lasting to this day. In The Lantern and Mother, Tzeng summons and recalls the past memory of his childhood in countryside. However, his description of the past events mixed with some fictitious expansion in a natural flow has the post modern energetic descriptive style hidden with its rich hints. Therefore Huang and Tzeng’s new folk writing is not to summon the traditional spirit of the old folk novels, but they use post folk writing to fine tune and readjust the key points of the folk novels.