Worldmaking and Worldbreaking: Pussy Riot's ‘Punk Prayer’

Abstract

This article critiques Nelson Goodman's seminal account of worldmaking on the basis that it focuses on the abstract at the expense of the concrete and therefore over-emphasises rightness and coherence in the creation of world versions. Suggesting that his account ought not to be abandoned altogether, Goodman's five worldmaking processes are used in conjunction with Judith Butler's account of gesture as event. The article suggests that worldmaking inevitably involves worldbreaking not simply in the sense of transforming already existing world versions but in terms of the co-existence of world versions within a single location. Pussy Riot's action ‘Mother of God, Chase Putin Away’ in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour forms the case in point, drawing out the dynamic between worldmaking and worldbreaking and showing how it is inevitably and powerfully bound up with performance and context.