李昂的《殺夫》從八十年代初的台灣文壇一躍而起，借助葛浩文的英譯昇華為第三世界女性書寫的一個成功的範本。本文以小說在海外的接受為始，所關注的並非作品的普遍性，而是李昂寫作的歷史性和地域性，著眼點在文本背後跨越國族界限和文化溝壑的各種穿越和旅行。透過對「婦人殺夫」這個敘述原型在近半個世紀裡飄洋過海的轉寫歷程的描述，筆者力圖重新檢索文本的可攜帶性、可譯性和伸張性。《殺夫》作為一個女性書寫的範本，更可以用來重新檢視二十世紀華語文學寫作中處處埋伏的國族和文化的界限。在人和物都頻繁流通的年代，敘述和它的衍生體也可以裝在箱籠裡遊蕩，異地生根，外域的故事可以本土化，老舊的軼聞可借嶄新的面貌重現。可以說，跨時代、越國界的敘述演繹也是一個國家文學寫作史的重要脈絡，而殺夫本事近半世紀的演繹印證的則是當代台灣文壇與民國上海文化史之間若即若離的關聯。

In 1945 Shanghai, a sensational murder case—a woman murdering her husband in deep vengeance—generated much public debate in the wartime occupied city. For a generation of young women writers and intellectuals who rose to fame during the war, the murder case was an opportunity to reinstate their leading roles in influencing and reshaping public opinions. Narratives of this murder case traveled in the next few decades, first appearing in a collection about Shanghai memories penned by Chen Dingshan, a popular writer from the Shanghai era, who, like many Chinese of his generation, found himself belonging to a transplanted community in the city of Taipei following the 1949 divide. The narrative was to resurface again in 1980s Taiwan, in Li Ang’s feminist / modernist novel The Butcher’s Wife. Without having possibly known of the social context surrounding the original murder case, and with only Chen Dingshan’s much fictionalized account as the main source of inspiration, Li Ang localizes the motif and paints vivid pictures of the faces and voices surrounding the event and the eyes peeping into the private lives of the individuals in question. This Taiwan narrative thus presents the most eloquent commentary on an episode in Shanghai history of the Republican era.