王文興最受推崇的作品為1978年出版的長篇小說《家變》。在此之前他所創作的短篇小說，相對未獲重視。五十年來，王文興堅持的藝術理念一貫，《家變》所表現的存在境況、生存主題，在青年時期寫就的短篇小說，已多方探索；儘管篇幅、結構、情節不同，但作為一位｢思考｣型小說家的主題，早經確立。重視文字的精確獨特，講究文體的沉深穩重，追求詩的語言效果，借用象徵的方式，都是他短篇小說的特色。米蘭‧昆德拉說：｢所有的小說家或許只寫一種主題，用的卻是許多變奏。｣王文興的短篇是其一生繁複藝術面貌的源頭，深具研究價值。本文藉精神分析學，針對王文興小說人物的表呈面向，試探王文興短篇小說的特色。

Wang Wenxing's most highly regarded novel is "JiaBian (家變)", published in 1978. His short stories written before "Jia Bian" are comparatively less noticed. All through the fifty years as a novelist, Wang Wenxmg has been persistent in his artistic concerns. The themes appeared in "Jia Bian (家變)". i.e., human existence and their existential condition had actually all been discussed in a wide range in his short stories written at youth. As a narrator of "thoughts", his themes have been set early in his writing life, even though the length, the structure and the development of his stories might have changed; and the characteristics of his writing style, such as verbal precision and uniqueness, the exquisitely balanced writing style, the pursuit of poetic language effect, and the usage of symbols already appeared in his short stories. To quote Milan Kundera's words:"… perhaps all novelists ever do is writing just one kind of theme (the first novel) and its variations"; Wang Wenxing's short stories, being the source of his multifaceted artistic achievements, definitely require to be studied in depth. This essay, based on the theories of psychoanalysis, tries to explore the characteristics of Wang Wenxing's short stories by examining the different aspects of the characters in the stories.