QUESTIONING EX-SISTENCE: ON THE VOID IN THE REAL AND THE UNIMAGINABLE
Abstract: This article revolves around the question of how the real should be conceptualized. More specifically, it argues that the real should be defined not solely vis-à-vis the symbolic, as that which resists symbolization, but equally vis-à-vis the imaginary, as that which resists imagination. This enables the author to distinguish between two forms in which the real may appear: the unnameable, which emerges correlative to the symbolic, and the unimaginable, which emerges correlative to the imaginary. Further, the author introduces a conceptual triad corresponding to internal voids inscribed within the symbolic, the imaginary, and the real, naming them silence, darkness, and emptiness. Using this triad, the author introduces a new way of conceptualizing the interrelations of the three orders, viewing them as relating to each other through their separations, to the extent that their internalized voids converge in the disjunction in-between them; for example, in the disjunction of the symbolic and the real, silence and emptiness converge. Lastly, it is postulated that there is a primordial void in the real which subsists outside and independent of the symbolic.