民初白話文運動以來，散文發展宛如千巖競秀，其中尤以抒情散文蔚為大宗。本文以抒情散文為對象，爬梳「五四」以來現代散文抒情傳統的演變，一則溝通了古典文學與現代散文之抒情傳統，二則深化了現代散文史的研究論述。有關現代散文中抒情散文的類型及其演變，本文首先藉由對「抒情」意涵的重新探討與把握，釐清一般所謂的「抒情文」及「抒情散文」的不同。再者，藉由抒情本質的掌握，發現抒情散文情志關懷的方向正置落於一條以「小我」與「大我」為兩端的線形譜系上。長期以來，散文一向被認為與時代、環境互動疏遠，然而透過本文對現代抒情散文歷史發展的觀察，可以發現這種刻板印象與事實並不相符。證知文學與時代的關聯不只是侷限在「反映現實」單一層次；職是之故，未來散文史之研究在時代背景的考察上，當有更縝密、深入、多角度的思考與辨析。

The early Republican Vernacular Movement drove the development of prose, especially lyrical prose. This paper aims to examine the transformation of the lyrical genre after the ＂May Fourth Movement.＂ Furthermore, this study compares the lyric tradition seen in classical literature with that seen in modem prose in an attempt to understand the history of modem prose. As for the transformation and types of lyrical prose, the study first re-defines the meaning of the lyrical genre and clarifies the differences between lyrics and lyrical prose. It was found that the nature of lyrical prose fell to both ends of the linear spectrum; to the ＂little me＂ on one hand and ＂big I＂ on the other. Lyrical prose has long been considered different from modem works in light of its limited consideration on context and historical background. However, careful study of the historical development of modem lyrical prose shows that this stereotype is not consistent with the facts. The study also found that the association between cognition literature and the era in which it was written no longer reflects reality. Therefore, the author suggests further investigation of history of lyrical prose with in-depth and multi-angle analyses.