對陳映真的歷史位置，直到今天一般都還從他對台灣青年的左翼影響與旗幟鮮明的中國統一主張來評價。本文則擴大視野，試圖以超越左右與族群的觀點來重看六十年代陳映真的時代意義。六十年代是接受國民政府普及教育的台灣戰後新生代的成長期，是台灣在歷經肅殺的1950年代之後的文藝復甦與思想解放時期，又逢全球性的青年造反運動。這些因素促成台灣戰後新生代在六十年代開始進行一場深具時代意義的世代自我實現，在各個面向影響到此後三、四十年的台灣。陳映真正是其中的領頭者與代表者，成長於斯時的不少台灣知識青年受到陳映真小說的感動與影響。本文並指出在沒有任何意識形態可以壟斷主導的六十年代台灣，較不受「政治正確」羈絆的知識青年的心靈其實較為自由，而這可能是戰後新生代得以收穫多樣的實踐成果的重要因素。

Chen Yingzhen has been regarded as the Taiwan’s utmost representative leftist intellectual. However, this article tries to reconstruct Chen’s historical significance in Taiwan’s Sixties in a broader perspective. Taiwan’s Sixties was a peculiar period. While there was a global youth rebellion, Taiwan’s post-war baby boom generation, who have just been re-educated as Chinese, were going through a cultural “renaissance” and started to practice what they have digested, and to realize their creativities in all aspects, and this could be called the generation’s self-realization. Chen Yingzhen was one of their initiator and leader, and a very significant one. The fact that there were no dominating ideologies during this period allowed room for this wave of creativity to flourish.