Kitten Heresy: Lost Contexts of Pussy Riot's Punk Prayer

Steinholt, Yngvar B.

doi:10.1080/03007766.2012.735084

Cited by 38 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The parallels to Pussy Riot's “Punk Prayer” are apparent: “Medieval carnival is known to have included mockery of church authorities, even swearing and indecent behavior from pulpits and altars” (Steinholt 2013, 123). While both Pussy Riot and medieval carnival encompass elements of humor, they combine these with serious threat.…”

Section: Anonymity's Contradictory Freedomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anonymity and Democracy: Absence as Presence in the Public Sphere

Asenbaum

2018

Am Polit Sci Rev

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Although anonymity is a central feature of liberal democracies—not only in the secret ballot, but also in campaign funding, publishing political texts, masked protests, and graffiti—it has so far not been conceptually grounded in democratic theory. Rather, it is treated as a self-explanatory concept related to privacy. To overcome this omission, this article develops a complex understanding of anonymity in the context of democratic theory. Drawing upon the diverse literature on anonymity in political participation, it explains anonymity as a highly context-dependent identity performance expressing private sentiments in the public sphere. The contradictory character of its core elements—identity negation and identity creation—results in three sets of contradictory freedoms. Anonymity affords (a) inclusion and exclusion, (b) subversion and submission, and (c) honesty and deception. This contradictory character of anonymity's affordances illustrates the ambiguous role of anonymity in democracy.

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Section: Anonymity's Contradictory Freedomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anonymity and Democracy: Absence as Presence in the Public Sphere

Asenbaum

2018

Am Polit Sci Rev

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“…Pussy Riot was not a music band but a dissident group. They chose the form of a punk band because they considered punk to be an adequate medium for their message (Steinholt, 2013;Willems, 2014). Nonetheless, the exploitation of music as a backdoor to political activism has proven to be a potent way to connect with modern crowds.…”

Section: Why Talk About Music and Politics? Alternative And Popular Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Russian Rap on YouTube Advances Alternative Political Deliberation: Hegemony, Counter-Hegemony, and Emerging Resistant Publics

Denisova

Herasimenka

2019

Social Media + Society

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The late 2010s have seen the unprecedented rise of Russian rap culture on YouTube. This study delves into the unexplored area of the relationship between rap music, politics, and the Internet audience in Russia. It focuses on the analysis of the production of the most popular rap videos—their narratives, power relations, and socio-political themes, as well as the prevailing patterns in the discussion on socio-political issues by the YouTube audience. The study brings three contributions that identify the power relations in the Russian society that manifest in the field of rap music. First, the Russian-speaking users demonstrate a high level of criticality toward the pro-Kremlin rap music on YouTube and challenge the lies of propaganda rap. Second, pro-government rappers follow the Soviet authoritarian ethos and praise belonging to the collective of elites, while liberal ones adhere to the individual responsibility. Third, we demonstrate the prevalence of patriarchal gender values, including macho politics and unquestioned sexism, which are representative of gender politics in the country. This article proves the importance of socio-political commentary on YouTube and points to the rap videos as the popular hubs for the socio-political debates. Users flow to rap videos and utilize the comment section to have their say on the political context and power relations rather than the music, to engage with others, and to contribute to the emerging collective debate. The comment sections on these rap videos have a unique value for the Russian users who exploit them as the negotiation space in the void of other platforms for social dialogue in Russia.

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“…1 In contrast with more essentialist approaches towards collective identity (for an extensive overview, see Welschen 2012), CDP allows us to address the multi-layered character of the Pussy Riot performance, which has been noted but not developed in existing literature (Steinholt 2013;Voronina 2013). In this article, collective identity is interpreted as part of an individual's reality that is constructed through a vast argumentative texture (Laclau 1993).…”

Section: Collective Female Identity: a Critical Discursive Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective Female Identities in Discussions about Pussy Riot’s Performance

Agaltsova¹

2014

R&G

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In this paper, I address the issue of collective female identities in contemporary Russia. The Pussy Riot performance is regarded as a critical event that serves as a trigger for certain 'groupness'. Taking critical event perspectives avoids framing the respondents with the researcher's predetermined categories. The empirical data is collected via collective interviews with the diverse group of Moscovites. Analysis highlights the domination of an authoritarian/collectivistic interpretative repertoire in older participants' discussions about the performance, which has resulted in the articulation of the image of the disadvantaged female and the denial of women's agency. The younger participants, being familiar with a co-existing liberal interpretative repertoire, have continued to use a conservative repertoire to discuss Pussy Riot. This and a general lack of gender problematisation in the interviews indicate that feminist discourse is not at all widespread in the Moscovites' everyday discourse.

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Kitten Heresy: Lost Contexts of Pussy Riot's Punk Prayer

Cited by 38 publications

References 1 publication

Anonymity and Democracy: Absence as Presence in the Public Sphere

Anonymity and Democracy: Absence as Presence in the Public Sphere

How Russian Rap on YouTube Advances Alternative Political Deliberation: Hegemony, Counter-Hegemony, and Emerging Resistant Publics

Collective Female Identities in Discussions about Pussy Riot’s Performance

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