Parody and Pastiche

Fredric Jameson 

Postmodernism ( a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self- conscious use of earlier styles and conventions)

- a desperate attempt to make sense of an age

- 'an immense dilation of [culture's] sphere, an immense & historically original accumulation of the real' 

- 'postmodernity has transformed the historical past into a series of emptied-out stylizations that can be commodified and consumed'

- recycled dead style

- technology; 'concerned with the reproduction rather than the industrial production of material goods'. Technology is removing the need for artists 
  


Pastiche (an artistic style that imitates that of another work, artist or period)

- 'parody, in the past-modern age, has been replaced with pastiche'

- 'the imitation of a peculiar or unique idiosyncratic style, speech is a dead language'

-  'the disappearance of the individual subject, along with its formal consequence the increasing unavailability of the personal style' - no one is original anymore, we all steel design and ideas from each other 

- 'pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of linguistic mask, speech is a dead language.' 


Parody (Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism: Parody and History)

- ' I want to argue that postmodernism is a fundamentally, contradictory enterprise: its art form and theory use and abuse, install and then subvert convention in parodic ways, self-consciously pointing both to their own inherent paradoxes and provisionality and, of course, to their critical and ironic re-reading of the art of the past.'

- 'postmodernist art offers a new model for mapping the borderline between art and the world' 

- 'postmodernist forms want to work toward a public discourse that would overtly eschew modernist aestheticism and hermeticism and their attendant political self marginalization.' 

- ' The past as referent is not bracketed or effaced, as Jameson would like to believe: it is incorporated and modified, giving new and different life and meaning.'


Postmodernism - a departure from modernism is characterized by the self- conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, is described by Jameson (1991) as a 'desperate attempt to make sense of an age'. He states that postmodernity has 'transformed the historical past into a series of emptied out stylizations that can be commodified and consumed'. This is contradicted by L Hutcheon (1986) who wrote that 'modernist art offers a new model for mapping the borderline between art and the world'. (L, Hutcheon 1986) Breaking this down, Jameson sees the change as a negative, the increasing use and idealisation of technology is seen as removing the need for artists and designers as well as postmodernism being a 'desperate attempt to understand the age'. On the other hand Hutcheon argues that 'the past' is 'incorporated and modified, giving new and different life and meaning' as well as postmodernism being a 'fundamentally, contradictory enterprise'. This gives a positive to Jamesons negative view on postmodernism.

Jameson also introduces the idea of Pastiche, 'pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of linguistic mask, speech is a dead language.' An example of this is the 80's film poster for Blade Runner. This is a typical poster designed in the current style of the 80's which has gone on to influence the modern day series poster for the netflix series 'Stranger Things'. Although Jameson would disagree with this level of pastiche as he describes pastiche as being 'the imitation of a peculiar or unique idiosyncratic style, speech is a dead language', Hutcheon argues that ' The past as referent is not bracketed or effaced, as Jameson would like to believe: it is incorporated and modified, giving new and different life and meaning.' This therefore supports the link between the posters.