Dmitry Uzlaner
"The Pussy Riot Case" and the Peculiarities of Russian Postsecularism
Dmitry Uzlaner - Editor-in-Chief of the Journal " State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide"; Associate Professor at The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russia), religion@rane.ru
This article is devoted to the analysis of the materials of the "Pussy Riot" case, which started after the scandalous punk-prayer of the musical group in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow (Feb. 2012). These materials are used to illustrate the peculiarities of postsecular situation in Russia. Two issues are analyzed with special precision: 1) "punk-prayer" and the religious/secular boundary; 2) "punk-prayer" and postsecular hybrids. The author emphasizes that postsecular processes do not follow one single pattern and that we can't talk about postsecularism in singularity; instead we should talk about collisions between different normative models of postsecularism, each supported by it's own actors and activists. The materials of the case allow us to single out two such models: "official" (supported by state and Church powers) and "oppositional" (supported by political and Church opposition).
Keywords: desecularization, "punk-prayer", postsecular, postecular hybrids, Pussy Riot.
page 93From the point of view of theory, the problems of the post-secular are already well studied, including by domestic authors. 1 However, there is a clear lack of empirical studies that would operationalize this theory in relation to Russian realities. In this article, using the Pussy Riot case as an example, I intend to fill in at least some of this gap
The Pussy Riot case, at least according to the media coverage, was the main near - religious-if not socio - political-event of 2012. Let me briefly recall the essence of the matter and restore the sequence of events: On February 21, in the midst of the presidential election camp ...
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