Theologian and philosopher: studies of contemporary culture, the image of a superhero and the walking dead

What are the different approaches to the study of mass culture? As the image enters superhuman in comics? Are zombies just a metaphor for the problems of modern society? All these questions raise in your lectures religious expert Ivar Maksutov and philosopher Aleksandr Pavlov in the framework of the project "Dialogues". Ivar Maksutov: Superheroes as a phenomenon of religious life In his lecture, religious expert Ivar Maksutov says about the world of DC comics and Marvel, the image of the supernatural in popular culture and the Christian component of the "Harry Potter".



In my opinion, throughout the twentieth century superheroes are one of the cornerstones of the new mass culture. They reflect different ideas and important problems, which, I think, are religious, get religious traits, and sometimes are formalized in the religious institution. They enjoy enormous support of the audience, people are willing not just to pay for the content they want to associate themselves with these figures and some way to develop. This moment of involvement in the superhero space, the willingness to be embodied in superheroes is extremely important.Alexander Pavlov: Zombie: the origin of species by means of natural selection In the lectures, the philosopher Alexander Pavlov says about the image of zombies in video games, comics and TV series as a metaphor for social problems and human fears.



Everything we know about zombies — it's not a lie, but an illusion. Usually when people discuss zombies, mostly, they talk about the movies that came after 2002 or discuss numerous computer games. We have mainstreamy discourse zombies. Movies, we are talking about, for example, "world War Z" refer to the high-mass culture, that is, it is well made, expensive paintings with stars, they often do famous authors. If we look closely, in parallel with this, there are so many different movies, games, comics about zombies that we don't really like this movie, which is unlikely to see the person like "28 days later" or "world War Z". Zombies low mass culture is something that existed before 2002. Thus, we have two different universes, zombies: for many and for few.Discussion Ivar Maksutov and Alexander Pavlov answer questions from the audience about the figure of Darth Vader, the high-mass culture and the supernatural.



Religion is the idea of the superhuman. This is how the human is connected with the supernatural and how this distinction is overcome, be in the present moment. Superheroes is a great example, as it is thousands of different forms of superhuman. They have some common features, but there are many different forms and variations. However, this does not mean that belief in the existence of Superman turns into a religion. There are different forms of religion: cult, religious movements. Not necessarily that we are dealing with a structured Church like the Catholic one. It could just be the movement, the worship.

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Source: postnauka.ru/lectures/25665