1990年代因為鄉土意識的蓬勃發展，在政府政策引導下，九○年代中期眾多區域文學史發表可視為鄉土意識發展的高潮。花蓮在這一波熱潮下也曾經進行花蓮文學史料的蒐集，做為「花蓮文學史」撰述的準備工作。雖然這次的蒐集工作在傳統文學與現代文學部分大有收穫，但是「花蓮文學史」至今始終沒有出現。不過隨後地方政府舉辦了「花蓮文學研討會」、「花蓮文學獎」徵文，試圖擴充花蓮文學的內涵與凝聚共識，這些努力都有助於日後「花蓮文學史」的撰述。為促使「花蓮文學史」早日誕生，本文試圖釐清花蓮文學的定義與其撰述的困難，因此有必要重新探討區域文學與區域文學史的相關論述。關於區域對於區域文學的影響是否必然存在，是探討區域文學必須先釐清的概念。從區域的劃分到區域的特色以及區域文化的生成，這才是影響區域文學的關鍵，釐清這些觀念之後才能試圖為花蓮文學下定義，花蓮文學的定義清楚之後，才能決定花蓮文學史的內容。最後，仍然有些模糊地帶在花蓮文學史撰述時會碰上的難題，如日治時期花蓮的文學書寫大多為日文，增加史料蒐集的難度，而花蓮人口的流動性強，客居的文人作家和旅行文學的書寫不知凡幾，其作品的認定問題仍然是個難題。最後是當今全球化的影響下，地方性與地方文學是否還存在，或是強調地方性與地方文學的意義何在？這都是撰述花蓮文學史需要克服的難題

In the 1990s, the boosting homeland consciousness and the guidance of government policies spurred a great number of regional literature publishing. The period of mid 90s is regarded to be the peak of homeland consciousness development. With this trend, Hualien started collecting its historical documents for the preparation of composing ＂the history of Hualien literature＂. It has made a great process in the collection of traditional and modern literature. However, ＂the history of Hualien literature＂ hasn't published yet. Later on, Hualien government held several events such as ＂Hualien Literature Seminar＂ and the writing contest for ＂History of Hualien Literature Award＂ in order to expand the contents and establish a mutual understanding of Hualien literature. All the efforts that have been made will help the composition work of ＂History of Hualien Literature＂ in the future. ＂Do regions exactly have influence on regional literature?＂ That's the concept which has to be clarified before the discussion of regional literature. The region's division, features, and culture formation are exactly the key elements that influence regional literature. We can try to define Hualien literature only when all of the key elements are clarified. We can therefore decide the contents of the history of Hualien literature only when the definition of Hualien literature is clarified. On the other hand, the gray zone that exists in Hualien literature makes it difficult to compose the history of Hualien literature; for example, during Japanese occupation, most of the literature was written in Japanese, which has made the collection of history documents more difficult. In addition, the frequent migrating guest writers and travelers in Hualien have created numerous but unknown literary works, and the identification of which is also a difficulty to deal with. Moreover, under the influence of globalization, the doubt about the existence of local and regional literature, and the question about the value of local and regional literature are also the difficulties that have to be overcome.