國立臺灣大學外文系畢業，美國威斯康辛大學麥迪遜校區比較文學博士。曾任教於臺灣大學、美國哥倫比亞大學東亞系。現任美國哈佛大學東亞語言及文明系Edward C. Henderson講座教授。著有《從劉鶚到王禎和：中國現代寫實小說散論》、《眾聲喧嘩：30與80年代的中國小說》、《閱讀當代小說：臺灣．大陸．香港．海外》、《小說中國：晚清到當代的中文小說》、《想像中國的方法：歷史．小說．敘事》、《如何現代，怎樣文學？：十九、二十世紀中文小說新論》、《眾聲喧嘩以後：點評當代中文小說》、《跨世紀風華：當代小說20家》、《被壓抑的現代性：晚清小說新論》、《現代中國小說十講》、《歷史與怪獸：歷史，暴力，敘事》、《茅盾，老舍，沈從文：寫實主義與現代中國小說》、Fictional Realism in Twentieth-century China: Mao Dun, Lao She, Shen Congwen (1992), Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911 (1997), The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-century China (2004)等。2004年獲選為中央研究院第25屆中央研究院院士。 《被壓抑的現代性：晚清小說新論》一书中有专章讨论晚清科幻文学。

David Der-wei Wang is Edward C. Henderson Professor of Harvard University and a member of Academia Sinica. His specialties are Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature, Late Qing fiction and drama, and Comparative Literary Theory. Wang received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and he has taught at National Taiwan University and Columbia University. Wang's English books include Fictional Realism in 20th Century China: Mao Dun, Lao She, Shen Congwen (1992), Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Mondernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911 (1997), The Monster That Is History: Violence, History, and Fictional Writing in 20th Century China (2004); and his Chinese books include From Liu E to Wang Zhenhe: Modern Chinese Realist Fiction (1986), Heteroglossia: Chinese Fiction of the 30's and the 80's (1988); Reading Contemporary Chinese Fiction (1991); Narrating China (1993); The Making of the Modern;The Making of A Literature (1997); Methods of Imagining China (1998); After Heteroglossia: Reviews of Contemporary Chinese Fiction (2001); Into the Millennium: 20 Contemporary Chinese Fiction Writers (2002); The Monster That Is History (2005). His Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Mondernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911 includes a chapter discussing the late Qing science fantasy.