“ Negotiating Desire and Queer Subjectivity in Spring Fever: Reading Lack Through Lacan and Butler ”

This study examines the representation of queer desire and subjectivity in Spring Fever (2009), directed by Lou Ye, through the theoretical frameworks of Jacques Lacan and Judith Butler. Drawing on Lacan’s concept of lack and the perpetual pursuit of unattainable desire, the paper explores how the film’s characters negotiate emotional longing, intimacy, and identity within a social environment marked by constraint and ambiguity. Simultaneously, Butler’s theory of gender performativity provides a critical lens for understanding the fluid and constructed nature of sexual identities depicted in the narrative. Through a close textual analysis of character interactions, visual symbolism, and narrative structure, this research argues that Spring Fever challenges fixed notions of gender and sexuality while revealing desire as an ongoing process shaped by absence, social discourse, and self-performance. The film ultimately presents queer subjectivity as a dynamic and unstable formation, continuously negotiated between personal longing and societal expectations, thereby contributing to broader discussions in queer theory, psychoanalytic criticism, and contemporary Chinese cinema (Lacan 203–10; Butler 43–56; Lou 78–84). Furthermore, this study situates Spring Fever within the broader context of contemporary Chinese cinema and its engagement with marginalized identities. By examining the tension between private desire and public visibility, the paper demonstrates how the film critiques normative social structures that regulate sexuality and belonging. The characters’ experiences of secrecy, emotional vulnerability, and relational instability illustrate the complex interplay between individual agency and cultural expectations. Through the combined perspectives of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Butlerian queer theory, the research highlights the film’s contribution to ongoing debates concerning identity formation, resistance to heteronormativity, and the politics of representation in global queer cinema (Butler 169–80; Lacan 517–25; Berry 132–39).

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Keywords: Queer Desire ، Queer Subjectivity ، Jacques Lacan ، Judith Butler ، Spring Fever