Interpretation of pop culture by A. Dugin and S. Zizek: tradition and ideology

Research in the field of pop culture and its semantic fields occupies an important place in cultural science today. Elements of pop culture, such as music and cinema, are currently sufficiently represented in scientific discourse. In this paper, two views on the interpretation of pop culture will be considered, belonging to the Russian traditionalist philosopher Alexander Dugin and the Slovenian social philosopher Slavoj Žižek. These “public philosophers” are known for sometimes extravagant and outrageous statements, their ideological differences are expressed in the form of an interpretation of pop culture and its conclusions. The situation when two well-known modern philosophers with diametrically opposed political and philosophical positions reflect on the nature of the introduction of elements of the system into pop culture (the concepts of “tradition” and “ideology”), undoubtedly, should be considered through a comparison of interpretations. Dugin’s analysis of pop culture is based on a traditionalist interpretation and, as will be shown in the article, is quite close to hermeneutical theory, namely Heidegger and Gadamer. In turn, Žižek’s analysis of pop culture is based on Marxism, the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan interpreted by the philosopher, and the theory of ideology of Louis Althusser. The primary issue addressed in this article revolves around the consonance of these interpretive approaches. The authors seek to discern the points of convergence (if any) between their respective conceptual frameworks. Through this comparative exploration, the article endeavors to illuminate the complexities inherent in the philosophical discourse surrounding pop culture and its ideological implications.