The Aleph and the Real: An Examination of Borges' Short Story through Slavoj Zizek's Psychoanalytic Theory

Abstract

This research paper examines the concept of the Real, as proposed by Slavoj Zizek, through the study of The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges. This short story best represents this idea of the Real as intended by the Slovenian philosopher. Yet, Borges displays the idea of the Real through a mystical perspective, whereas Zizek tends lean on psychoanalytical perspectives. Once the short story is read through Zizek, we can perceive a new interpretation of the text. Otherwise, the transformative process after encountering the Aleph remains ambiguous and irrelevant. A similar idea of this transformation is also represented in many religious readings of the concept of God. This paper tends to study this idea of the Real through the psychoanalytic theory of Slavoj Zizek. His theory makes a long journey through Sigmund Freud and Jacque Lacan. The objective of this study is to have a new understanding of the ideas that undergo ambiguities and misunderstanding, including the idea of unseen powers that dominate our life.