Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.29162/ANAFORA.v13i1.5
Love in the Time of Dystopia: Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster (2015)
Jelena Pataki Šumiga
orcid.org/0000-0001-8727-3156
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
In canonical utopias and dystopias, romantic love and deep emotional connection are either discouraged or strongly prohibited. Examples range from Plato’s Republic in the fourth century BC, which bans romantic and familial relationships to enhance one’s loyalty to the state, to Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), which fosters promiscuity and technological procreation, to Orwell’s 1984 (1949), which punishes those who engage in passionate sexual relationships. The same aversion to love, both between partners and between parents and children, can be found in young adult dystopias, such as Lauren Oliver’s Delirium trilogy (2011–2013). Although The Lobster (2015, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) is not the sole counterexample, it is among the rare dystopian narratives in which romantic love is forced on individuals. In the film, single and divorced people are placed in a “Hotel” for a limited amount of time, during which they have to find a romantic partner. If they fail to do so, they are turned into an animal of their choice. The residents must not masturbate but are exposed to daily sexual stimulation by the Hotel staff, as well as to social propaganda on the benefits of partnerships. By using Foucault’s theory of biopolitics and administered sexuality, the article aims to disclose the practices used to achieve romantic coupledom in The Lobster as a biopolitical dystopian mechanism that forces people to conform to an abstract yet merciless social system or literally dehumanizes them by transforming them into animals.
Keywords
dystopia, love, Foucault, biopolitics, sexuality, The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos
Hrčak ID:
348114
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2026.
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