Protoexistence: A Liminal Layer in the Architecture of Pre-Reflective Consciousness.

The article introduces 'protoexistence,' a pre-reflective, affective layer of experience that resists narrative integration and challenges conventional ideas of time and self. Drawing on Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and other phenomenologists, it argues that certain dimensions of lived experience emerge through rupture, silence, bodily intensity, and incoherence rather than articulated meaning. The work critiques qualitative research for prioritizing coherence and excluding affective gaps and somatic dislocations. It also proposes extending Phenomenological Mapping to trace these unstable phenomena through methods like mapping corporeal disruptions and preserving temporal incoherence, expanding the epistemological horizons of phenomenological inquiry.

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Abstract

This article introduces the concept of protoexistence-a pre-reflective, affective layer of experience that resists narrative integration and challenges conventional frameworks of temporality and subjectivity. Drawing on foundational insights from Husserl's internal time-consciousness (1998) and Merleau-Ponty's later reflections on the visible and the invisible (1969), this article explores how certain dimensions of lived experience emerge not through articulated meaning but through rupture, silence, bodily intensity, and incoherence. Protoexistence, as theorized here, resonates with Marion's (1997) saturated phenomenon, Levinas's (1978) il y a, and Henry's (2011) conception of life as affectively self-revealing, prior to intentional thought. Building on recent developments in affective and embodied phenomenology (Zahavi, 2016; Fuchs, 2018; Ratcliffe, 2022), the article critiques the tendency of qualitative research to prioritize coherence and thematic unity, often excluding affective gaps, somatic dislocations, and temporal suspensions. While the main contribution lies in the conceptual elaboration of protoexistence, the article also proposes an extension of the method of Phenomenological Mapping (PM) (Pacheco & Fossa, 2025), adapting it to trace these unstable phenomena. Through methodological innovations-such as mapping corporeal disruptions, listening to the unsaid, and preserving temporal incoherence-PM is shown to offer a fertile ground for exploring the ungraspable residues of experience. This reconceptualization challenges dominant assumptions about subjectivity and expands the epistemological horizons of phenomenological inquiry.