Parody & Pastiche

Parody:

work that mimics in an absurd or ridiculous way the conventions and style of another work

Pastiche : 

Unlike Parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than mocks, the work it imitates. Pastiche is an example of eclecticism in art.


Pastiche - Jameson

> "the imitation of dead styles" p.17-18
> "increasing unavailability of the personal style" p.16
> "Pastiche is thus blank parody, a statue with blind eyeballs"
>"Something which lends the text an extraordinary sense of deja vu and a peculiar familiarity"

Pastiche, according to Jameson, is the regurgitation of old styles combined to make a new one

Parody - 'Ulterior motives" - challenging the establishment through humour

Pastiche - "Speech is a dead language"

extracting signs from their original place in time.. and ultimately their meaning.

According to Jameson, parody has now been replaced in the modern world by pastiche, but pastiche lacks the political and or satirical viewpoint that parody has...

"Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique - But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives"

Parody - Hutcheon

> "Postmodernism is a fundamentally contradictory enterprise, its art forms use & abuse, install and then subvert convention in parodic ways" p.180
> "Postmodernism art offers a new model for mapping the borderline between art & the world" p.180
> "A dialog with the past" p.180
> Paraody - an imitation of a style or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect" 
> Modernist aestheticism p.181
> Foregrounds historical, social, ideological contexts p.183

Hutcheon talks about parody as if it is postmodernism, that postmodernist artists are creating a parody of modernism.

Hutcheon criticises Jameson's work because she believe's you need to have both parody and pastiche in order to create new ideas and move forward.



Task

Parody and pastiche are two different attitudes in the most basic sense. Parody is the art of taking something that has already been, been used, designed or even a particular style and then applying this in an ironic or even satirical fashion. Pastiche is more of a celebration, it is the art of recreating, mimicking or reproducing a past style from a previous era or stylistic period.

According to Jameson, the postmodern parody is a "blank parody" without any political bite. He goes on to say that parody has been replaced in the by pastiche, but pastiche lacks this political and or satirical viewpoint that parody has, "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique - But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives". 

Hutcheon, on the other hand, talks about parody in a sense that it is postmodern, that postmodernist artists are creating a parody of modernism. It is an ironic re-reading or re-writing of previous art styles, and that post modern art relies on the idea of there being a modernist collective style before it for it to exist as a movement in the first place. The general idea of the extract being read here is that postmodernism is the parody in its own right as it is produced with a sense of mimicry and mocking of past styles with the intent of provoking a reaction and encouraging discourse. It exists with a "parodic relation to the art of the past" (L. Hutcheon 1989).

A prime example of parody in graphic design is this comical remake of a well known image during the war. "We can do it" is an American wartime propaganda poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost worker morale. This redesign is mimicking the original by changing the quote from something inspirational to something lazy and borderline sexist. The redesign also takes influence from artistic styles such as pop art and cartoons through the use of colour and shape. The redesign is aimed at the fast food industry and general negative impacts of it in modern society.

In contrast, an example of pastiche design would be something like the example on the left. This pop art-styled image tackles the problems of Male suicide and depression in the modern era. Instead of mocking previous styles and artists, the use of pop art is to be recognisable and to get the attention of people who may have not considered the growing issue previously.