Slavoj (?)i(?)ek’s Popular Culture Theory Research

From Sigmund Freud to Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Zizek, the text analysis methods of Psychoanalysis has made an outstanding contribution to the development of the popular culture research and the whole cultural theory field. Centering on the culture-producer or culture-recipient, this method of analysis makes a deep analysis of the surface and the depth content of the popular culture text. Moreover, it explores how the text makes the audience obtain desire and enjoyment in the process of cultural consumption. Zizek’s unique interpretation of the popular culture creates a new paradigm in the field of popular culture research, and its distinct critical perspective and writing style have important implications on the field of popular culture research.Zizek specializes in applying the popular culture phenomenon to interpret Lacanian theory and this makes him unique in academia. For instance, he largely employs Hitchcock’s film and science fiction to expound the relationship between illusion and desire, the subject and reality. The process of interpretation of Lacanian theory can be also regarded as a process of observation of popular culture. Zizek’s popular culture theory can be discussed from three aspects. Firstly, it studies the critical perspective of Zizek’s popular culture theory from the macroscopic views, focusing on the subjectivity of the popular culture audience. Then the thesis makes concrete discussions about how the popular culture fantasy constructs people’s desire and social reality. Finally, it discusses how the important mass media of the popular culture—cyberspace makes the virtual become true, and what kinds of threat it poses to people’s daily life from the micro perspective.Zizek’s popular culture theory breaks the visible boundaries between the high culture and the popular culture. There are both complex psychoanalysis and deep philosophical thinking on the interpretation of the popular culture text details. This method aims to dig deeper into the text based on the micro perspective, and is conducive to grasp the complex relationship within the popular culture more profoundly. Zizek makes good use of the methods of "paradox","conflict","repeat" to study the popular culture. The advantages of this approach are that, we can deepen the understanding of things from a different side, and can also discover new meaning of details constantly during the repeated discussion. However, Zizek’s popular culture is also criticized for its pursuit of one-sided profound truth, and whether his theory is endowed with universal interpretation ability has been questioned. Zizek’s popular culture theory has already caused some of the concerns of the academic community, and gradually gained recognition of the popular culture research circle. However, his theory is not at a prominently position of the popular research, and also does not have an effect on a larger scale, especially in the area of the popular culture research of China. Thus, there are still huge spaces about the research of Zizek’s popular culture theory.