Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Spatial Transgressions, Anxiety, And The Discourse Of Pussy Riot's "Punk Prayer, Katherine Schroeder

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

The 2012 performance of Pussy Riot’s “Punk Prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, their subsequent release of an extended and edited video, and their ultimate arrest for committing “hooliganism” generated a large amount of interest both within Russia and on an international scale. While Western accounts and analyses were marked by their tendency to frame the political content, Russian responses were framed by references to tradition and history. Significantly, there was disagreement amongst the latter with regard to the activist value of Pussy Riot. I argue that this ambiguity arises from a profound socio-spatial anxiety that …