本論文探討蘇珊．洛里．帕克斯1996年的歷史劇本《維納斯》中維納斯和男爵醫生之間種族、帝國下的親密事件。過去的文學評論大多批判男爵醫生對維納斯進行性剝削和醫學迫害，鮮少有學者研究男爵醫生的內心感受，本論文旨在透過種族、帝國等層面剖析維納斯和男爵醫生之間的複雜關係。本論文首先以伊莉莎白．波維內利在《愛的帝國》中對愛的論述，驗證愛在帝權之下是否可能發生。第一章分析男爵醫生對維納斯超越白人慾望的迷戀，且這種迷戀進一步轉化成男爵醫生的身份認同危機，使自己在社會期望和他對維納斯的迷戀之間的選擇上產生了掙扎。第二章透過受虐癖理論探究維納斯作為受虐狂的可能性，揭示維納斯自願承受男爵醫生壓迫的具體原因，並以此討論維納斯作為被壓迫者的能動性。藉由探討帝權之下男爵醫生的身份認同危機和維納斯的能動性，本論文認為帕克斯有意詮釋迫害者與受害者之間挑戰二元對立的愛情故事。有鑑於此，帕克斯筆下的維納斯和男爵醫生都並非只是如歷史記載般緘默的受害者和壓迫者而已。

This thesis examines racial and imperial intimate event between the Venus and the Baron Docteur in Suzan-Lori Parks's 1996 historical play Venus. Among the existing studies, scholars have discussed how the Baron Docteur victimizes the Venus by sexual and medical exploitation. Yet, little scholarship has paid attention to the Baron Docteur's inner feelings. In order to fill the gap, my thesis aims to investigate the complicated relationship between the Venus and the Baron Docteur by analyzing love from racial and imperial perspectives. In particular, I adopt Elizabeth A. Povinelli's theory of imperial love to illustrate that an accident possibility of love could emerge in an intimate event although racial and imperial power is crucial in constraining a romantic relationship. Chapter One of the thesis analyzes the Baron Docteur's fascination for the Venus which goes beyond the white desire and how such fascination turns into his identity crisis. Such a crisis subjects the Baron Docteur to an inner struggle trying to decide between social expectation and his fascination for the Venus. Chapter Two reads the Venus from a masochist lens to reveal the specific reasons that the character is willing to submit to the Baron Docteur's exploitation and to examine her agency under oppression. Through exploring the Baron Docteur's identity crisis and the Venus's agency under imperial power, my thesis reveals that the Venus is not only a silenced victim while the Baron Docteur is not merely a persecutor as their relation in recorded history. Instead, Parks intentionally elaborates a love story that challenges a binary opposition between the oppressor and the oppressed.

Works Cited
Chaudhuri, Una. "For Posterior's Sake." Suzan-Lori Parks in Person: Interviews and Commentaries, edited by Kolin, Philip C., and Harvey Young, Routledge, 2014, pp. 55-57.
Freud, Sigmund. "The Economic Problem of Masochism." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Volume XIX, translated and edited by Strachey, James., The Hogarth Press, 1961, pp. 156-170.
Garrett, Shawn-Marie. "'For the Love of the Venus': Suzan-Lori Parks, Richard Foreman, and the Premiere of Venus." Suzan-Lori Parks: Essays on the Plays and Other Works, edited by Kolin Philip C., McFarland & Company, 2010, pp. 76-87.
hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. William Marrow and Company, 2000.
Johung, Jennifer. "Figuring the 'Spells'/Spelling the Figures: Suzan-Lori Parks's 'Scene of Love (?).'" Theatre Journal, vol. 58, no. 1, 2006, pp. 39-52. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069778.
Krafft-Ebing, R. von. Psychopathia Sexualis: With Especial Reference to the Antipathic Sexual Instinct. Bantam, 1965.
Larson, Jennifer. Understanding Suzan-Lori Parks. University of South Carolina Press, 2012. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv6wgf37.
Lorde, Audre. "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power." Women in Culture: An Intersectional Anthology for Gender and Women's Studies, edited by Scott, Bonnie Kime., Susan E. Cayleff, Anne Donadey, and Irene Lara, John Wiley & Sons, 2016, pp. 205-209.
Lyman, Elizabeth Dyrud. "The Page Refigured: The Verbal and Visual Language of Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus." Performance Research, vol. 7, no. 1, 2002, pp. 90-100. Taylor and Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2002.10871835.
McCormick, Stacie. "Witnessing and Wounding in Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus." MELUS, vol. 39, no. 2, 2014, pp. 188-207. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44392743.
Mehl, Dieter. "Forms and Functions of the Play within a Play." Renaissance Drama, vol. 8, 1965, pp. 41-61. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4193891.
Mendelman, Lisa. "Resonant Silence: Love, Desire, and Intimacy in Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus." Gramma, vol. 17, 2009, 129-144.
Musser, Amber Jamilla. Sensational flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism. NYU Press, 2014.
Mustamäki, Piia. "Reading Representations of Race with Masochism: The 1990s and Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus." Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, vol. 26, no.1, 2011, pp. 27-44. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/dtc.2011.0011.
Noble, Marianne. The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2000.
Oddenino, Ilaria. "'I Wanna Love Something Wild': A Reading of Suzan- Lori Parks's Venus." Representation and Black Womanhood: The Legacy of Sarah Baartman, edited by Natasha Gordon-Chipembere, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp.121-135.
Olund, Eric. "'Disreputable life': Race, Sex, and Intimacy." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 28, no.1, 2010, pp. 142-157. Sage Journals, https://doi.org/10.1068/d13207.
Osha, Sanya. "Venus and White Desire." Transition, no. 99, 2008, pp. 80-93. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20204263.
Parks, Suzan-Lori. Venus. Theatre Communications Group, 1997.
Povinelli, Elizabeth A. The Empire of Love: Toward a Theory of Intimacy, Genealogy, and Carnality. Duke UP, 2006.
---. "What's Love Got to Do with It? The Race of Freedom and the Drag of Descent." Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, vol. 49, no. 2, 2005, pp. 173-81. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23178879.
Roach, Joseph. "An Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks and Bonnie Metzgar." Suzan-Lori Parks in Person: Interviews and Commentaries, edited by Kolin, Philip C., and Harvey Young, Routledge, 2014, pp. 112-119.
Rutherford, Danilyn. "Proximity to Disability." Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 93, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1453-1481. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/anq.2020.0018.
Savran, David. The Playwrights' Voice: American Dramatists on Memory, Writing and the Politics of Culture. Theatre Communication Group, 1999, pp. 139-163.
Sellar, Tom. "Making History: Suzan-Lori Parks: The Shape of the Past." Suzan-Lori Parks in Person: Interviews and Commentaries, edited by Kolin, Philip C., and Harvey Young, Routledge, 2014, pp. 49-54.
Wetmore, Jr., Kevin J. "It's an Oberammergau Thing: An Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks." From Suzan-Lori Parks: A Casebook, edited by Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. and Alycia Smith-Howard. Suzan-Lori Parks in Person: Interviews and Commentaries, edited by Kolin, Philip C., and Harvey Young, Routledge, 2014, pp. 120-135.
Young, Jean. "The Re-Objectification and Re-Commodification of Saartjie Baartman in Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus." African American Review, vol. 31, no. 4, 1997, pp. 699-708. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3042338.