本文透過2015年由希臘導演尤格·藍西莫執導的當代反烏托邦電影「單身動物園」，作為論文文本來探討強制性伴侶的政治文化。以Kalindi Vora，Neda Atanasoski，Michael Cobb和Naoki Sakai所提出的代理與親密的概念，我認為電影中所描繪的強迫性伴侶的運作方式與邏輯再現了殖民時期在人性、現代性與自由意義上帶來分裂的衝擊。具體來說，我透過文本的再現進而觀察一個國家的治理是如何凌駕於個人的私密空間與親密感之上。我也同時分析了社會的親密關係是如何被「標準化」並以自由之名義，以軍事化模式剷除那些不符合此新規範的身份，傾向和慾望。這其中透過軍事模式運行而產出的標準化親密關係含括了國家對性的控管；婚姻與核心家庭的意識形態以及強制性伴侶中的一夫一妻制，進而排外與犧牲那些在伴侶制度框架外任何可能的身分，或是因無法找到另一伴而不配作為「人」的單身代理者。以這樣為出發點，我的論文希望可以藉由此文本中新自由主義所呈現看似極為自由與個人主義的浪漫親密關係與人性，進一步探索間接掩飾掉的後殖民與後冷戰裏頭軍事主義化的國家控制與暴力的交織融合。

This thesis offers a detailed reading of a contemporary dystopian film, the director’s The Lobster (2015) by Yorgos Lanthimos, to explore the cultural politics of forced coupledom. Drawing on the ideas of surrogacy and intimacies developed by Kalindi Vora, Neda Atanasoski, Michael Cobb and Naoki Sakai, I argue that the logics of forced coupledom as depicted in the film reproduces colonial divisions of humanity, modernity and freedom. Specifically, I look at how this text renders visible the ways in which personal-private sphere becomes a primary site of national regulations. My analysis shows how the normalization of social intimacies is indeed militarized in the name of freedom, thereby excluding identities, tendencies and desires that do not fit to the new norm. The militarized intimacies refer to the state control of sexual desire; unchallengeable ideology and institution of marriage and nuclear family; coerced coupledom and monogamy at the expense of the flesh and blood of those uncoupled and dehumanized singles-turn-animals as surrogates. In this regard, my thesis contributes to postcolonial and post-cold war perspectives by showing how the neoliberal idea of romantic intimacies taken as liberal and individual choices inevitably converges with militarized state control and violence disguised as humanity.

Lowe, Lisa. “The Intimacies of Four Continents”. The Intimacies of Four Continents. The United States of America: Duke University Press, 2015. 1-41. Print.

Atanasoski, Neda, and Kalindi Vora. “Surrogate Humanity: Posthuman Networks and the (Racialized) Obsolescence of Labor.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, vol. 1, no. 1, Nov. 2015.

Cobb, Michael L. “The Probated Couple, or Polygamous Pioneers”. Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled. New York University Press, 2012.

Stanley, Eric A., and Nat Smith. “The Only Freedom I can see: Imprisoned Queer Writing and the Politics of the Unimaginable”. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. AK Press, 2015.

The Lobster. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, performances by Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Principal photography, 2015.

Delany, Samuel R. "Science Fiction and ‘Literature’--or, The Conscience of the King." Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction. Edited by James Gunn and Matthew Candelaria. The United States of America: The Scarecrow Press, INC., 2005. 95-117. Print.

Sakai, Naoki. “On Romantic Love and Military Violence: Transpacific Imperialism and U.S.-Japan Complicity.” Militarized Currents: Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific, 2010, pp. 205–222.

“The Lobster.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 15 Oct. 2015, www.imdb.com/title/tt3464902/.