Posthuman Desire: The One-All-Alone in Her, Ex Machina, and Lars and the Real Girl

Abstract

Clarifying that desire, for speaking beings, has always been posthuman, because it is the outcome of our interaction with the “machine” of language, rather than an innate human quality, Gillespie explores how desire is, nevertheless, changing in our era. Using Jacques-Alain Miller’s evolving concept of the “one-all-alone,” and Zygmunt Bauman’s notion of “liquid love,” she discusses how these changes are depicted in three contemporary films: Her, Ex Machina, and Lars and the Real Girl. Showing how desire has to be conceptualized differently now, she looks at the role of technology in these shifts in culture that are manifested in new symptoms in the clinic. Finally, she reflects on how we can respond to the surplus jouissance that is perpetuated by late capitalism.