Jione Havea (Ed.): MEDIAting Theology (Leseprobe)

24 Jione Havea
• Symbolic order: the terms and names that the
imagery
brings into speech e.g., fish, ika, poisson, etc. (in other words,
what an imagery brings into the realm of language);
• Real order: whatever comes through (from behind, below and beyond
the Imagery and Symbolic orders) at the intersecting of
-and-fish (e.g., lunch, longing, anticipation, satisfaction,
disgust; water, swim, drown, gag, etc.).
The Real in the Lacanian sense is not about being present or absent,
being there or not-there (conditions of reality), so it is not always obvious
or possible, but about the affect sparked by the Imagery and
Symbolic orders. Another way to conceive the Real is to locate it in the
realm of the sublime:
While eluding precise definition, the sublime can be described as a complex
feeling of intense satisfaction, uplift, or elevation, felt before an object or event
that is considered to be awe-inspiring. Although the sublime is sometimes
characterized as a complex combination of satisfying and discomforting elements,
it is on the whole a positive and pleasant experience: perceivers
typically desire the experience to continue. Related concepts are elevation,
wonder, reverence, awe, and admiration – perhaps one could think of the sublime
as a kind of “aesthetic” awe. An example of the feeling of the sublime
would be the exaltation or excitement felt before a vast or powerful object, a
natural wonder like the Grand Canyon, or a work of architecture such as the
Great Pyramid of Giza. Contemporary psychologists have sometimes studied
the sublime under another name, “awe.” (1) 6
In the shadows of the sublime, the Real is about affect – feeling and
sensation; similarly, the permutation of the Real-sublime-awe-affect is
at the bullseye of modern communication media – sensationalism.
I come as a native from outside of the Western world to the intersection
of the Real and the sublime, and my awes and sensations are not
always uplifting (in the jouissance ways of more comfortable people).
6
Robert R. Clewis, Editor’s Introduction, in: The Sublime Reader, Robert R. Clewis (ed.), London
2019, 1–13.