Study Task 3: Parody & Pastiche

Hutcheon and Jameson's academic contrasts between the understanding of postmodern parody and pastiche differ in a way that builds an understanding of each distinct term. Whereas Hutcheon sees much to value in postmodern literature's stance of parodic self-reflexivity, seeing an implicit political critique and historical awareness in such parodic works, Jameson characterizes postmodern parody as "blank parody" without any political bite.

Jameson further believes that parody has been replaced by pastiche in the modern age stating "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter". Jameson sees this turn to "blank parody" as a falling off from modernism, where individual authors were particularly characterized by their individual, "inimitable" styles: "the Faulknerian long sentence, for example, with its breathless gerundives; Lawrentian nature imagery punctuated by testy colloquialism; Wallace Stevens's inveterate hypostasis of nonsubstantive parts of speech ('the intricate evasions of as')"; etc. In postmodern pastiche, by contrast, "Modernist styles... become postmodernist codes", leaving us with nothing but "a field of stylistic and discursive heterogeneity without a norm". Postmodern cultural productions therefore amount to "the cannibalization of all the styles of the past, the play of random stylistic allusion, and in general what Henri Lefebvre has called the increasing primacy of the 'neo'".

**The idea that postmodernism self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, the mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories, has led to an array of approaches and formations of artistic freedoms in presenting pastiche ideals**

In such a world of pastiche, we lose our connection to history, which gets turned into a series of styles and superseded genres, or simulacra: "The new spatial logic of the simulacrum can now be expected to have a momentous effect on what used to be historical time". In such a situation, "the past as 'referent' finds itself gradually bracketed, and then effaced altogether, leaving us with nothing but texts". We can no longer understand the past except as a repository of genres, styles, and codes ready for commodification.

**This is an interesting notion explored that we paradoxically design our own history as well as our future through media projections (film/tv etc.) of what we (technically) theorise existed**

Jameson points to a number of examples:

1. the way that postmodern architecture "randomly and without principle but with gusto cannibalises all the architectural styles of the past and combines them in overstimulating ensembles"
2. the way nostalgia film or la mode rétro represents the past for us in hyperstylized ways (the 50s in George Lucas's American Griffitti; the Italian 1930s in Roman Polanski's Chinatown); in such works we approach "the 'past' through stylistic connotation, conveying 'pastness' by the glossy qualities of the image, and '1930s-ness' or '1950s-ness' by the attributes of fashion". The "history of aesthetic styles" thus "displaces 'real' history" . Jameson sees this situation as a "symptom of the waning of our historicity, of our lived possibility of experiencing history in some active way".
3. the way that postmodern historical novels (those works Hutcheon characterizes as "historiographic metafiction") represent the past through pop images of the past. Jameson gives E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime is a perfect example: "This historical novel can no longer set out to represent the historical past; it can only 'represent' our ideas and stereotypes about that past (which thereby at once becomes 'pop history')" . In such works, according to Jameson, "we are condemned to seek History by way of our own pop images and simulacra of that history, which itself remains forever out of reach" .

According to Hutcheon, one of the main features that distinguishes postmodernism from modernism is the fact that it "takes the form of self-conscious, self-contradictory, self-undermining statement". One way of creating this double or contradictory stance on any statement is the use of parody: citing a convention only to make fun of it. As Hutcheon explains, "Parody—often called ironic quotation, pastiche, appropriation, or intertextuality—is usually considered central to postmodernism, both by its detractors and its defenders". Unlike Jameson, who considers such postmodern parody as a symptom of the age, one way in which we have lost our connection to the past and to effective political critique, Hutcheon argues that "through a double process of installing and ironising, parody signals how present representations come from past ones and what ideological consequences derive from both continuity and difference". Hutcheon thus sets herself against the prevailing view among many postmodern theorists: "The prevailing interpretation is that postmodernism offers a value-free, decorative, de-historicized quotation of past forms and that this is a most apt mode for a culture like our own that is over-saturated with images" . Hutcheon insists, instead, that such an ironic stance on representation, genre, and ideology serves to politicize representation, illustrating the ways that interpretation is ultimately ideological. Parody de-doxifies, to use a favourite term of Hutcheon's; it unsettles all doxa, all accepted beliefs and ideologies. Rather than see this ironic stance as "some infinite regress into textuality", Hutcheon values the resistance in such postmodern works to totalising solutions to society's contradictions; she values postmodernism's willingness to question all ideological positions, all claims to ultimate truth.

**Essentially parody is ironic and meant with humorous effect, whereas pastiche is an artistic stylistic approach to depicting / presenting a concept. Respect for freedom of speech / style/ taste/ approach.**

Examples of TV & Film who utilise pastiche:

• In cinema, the influence of George Lucas' Star Wars films (spawning their own pastiches, such as the 1983 3D film Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn) can be regarded as a function of post-modernity (Wikipedia).
• Scream is a postmodern example of parody and pastiche within the slasher genre.
• Kill Bill (2003) pays tribute to (or perhaps imitates) numerous genres; pulp novels, blaxploitation, grindhouse, kung fu and western films - though some say Tarantino films are more of a homage
• Mad Men - set in 1960s America
• Stranger Things - set in early 80s America

Examples of Pastiche in Graphic Design

Stranger & Stranger - Product Designers

Stranger & Stranger is a packaging design and branding company specialising in alcoholic drinks. Their unique style is reminiscent of Gothic depictions of the late 18th and 19th century. The paisley flare and typographic choices mirror that of Victorian advertisement and labelling, yet with a grand and royal-esque touch.

This appropriation of stylistic convention and forms within design reflect well on the postmodernist ideals discussed between Hutcheon and Jameson on pastiche and parody. Hutcheon: 'parody signals how present representations come from past ones'
Jameson: 'the cannibalization of all the styles of the past, the play of random stylistic allusion'

' The intriguing illustrations, lush typography and fanciful compositions seem fresh on each glance. How could anyone ignore a bottle illustrated with the Peat Monster (inspired by the Scotch distilling ingredient peat), the gold emboss on Aberfeldy single malt whisky’s rugged little pot, or the fun of Curious Beasts Blood Red Wine, with its Halloween-themed sleeve adorned with skeletons and pumpkin heads? ' 

victorian advertisement

Gothic literature illustrations

David Lance Goines 

(born May 29, 1945) is an American artist, calligrapher, typographer, printing entrepreneur, and author. In 1982, Goines published the calligraphic classic A Constructed Roman Alphabet, which won him the 1983 American Book Award. Several books collecting his poster art have been published as well.

His style of posters are nostalgic of an array of time periods, from more art deco imitations to Roman and Egyptian time warped examples. His minimal approach and digital qualities bring the old stylistic approaches into modern conceptions exemplifying perfectly Jameson's idea of postmodern pastiche. 

Idea # 17: PASTICHE
Chez Panisse Second Birthday Celebration (1973), a poster designed by David Lance Goines in an homage to the Jugendstil style of the Vienna Workshops and Vienna Secession movement.