Study Task 02: Parody & Pastiche Essay

Study Task 02: Write a 300 (ish) word summary of parody and pastiche according to Jameson and Hutcheon these theories to at least 2 examples of Graphic Design (one from this session and one found yourself). 

Between the two different texts, parody and pastiche has impacted the art industry. This is shown between the two arguments of a modernist and a postmodernist side. Fredric  Jameson and Linda Hutcheon explore these theories of the matters of parody and pastiche.

In Jameson's, "Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" is what he calls "the waning of affect". When we look at modern painting with human figures we will most often find in them a human expression which reflects and inner experience, such as in Edvard Munch's "The Scream" which conveys the modern experience of alienation and anxiety. In contrast, Jameson holds to that in postmodern art feelings wane (therefore "the waning of affect").

Pastiche is one of the main characteristics of cultural production in the age of postmodernism as Jameson states. The existence of an independent subject was an essential part of artistic as cultural production in the modern times. It allows the artist to have a subject for the purpose of addressing his consumer as subject and thus to affect him. But with the waning of affect the artist's unique individuality, one a founding principle, has been reduced in the postmodern age to balance and to objectifying form of communication. With the fragmentation of subjectivity, it is no longer clear what postmodern artists and authors are supposed to do beside appealing to the past, to the imitation of dead styles, an "empty parody" without any deep or hidden meanings, a parody that Jameson names pastiche.


Pastiche, like parody, is the imitation of some unique style, but it is an empty neutral practice which lacks the intension and "say" of parody. The postmodern artist is reduced to pastiche because he cannot create new aesthetic forms, he can only copy old ones without creating any new meanings. Pastiches leads to what is referred to in architectural history as "historicism" which is acknowledged to Jameson is a random cannibalism of past styles. This cannibalism, pastiche, in now apparent in all spheres of cultural production but reaches its personification in the whole world. This could be how American's are centred in television and Hollywood culture.


When the past is being represent through pastiche the result is a "lost of historicalness". Jameson calls this type of postmodern history "pop history" (a history founded on the pop images produces by commercial culture). One of the manifestations of this pastiche pop history are nostalgic or retro films and books which present the appearance of an historical account when in fact these are only our own superficial stereotypes applied to times which are no longer accessible to us. Pastiche, then, is the only mode of cultural production allowed by postmodernism.

In Hutcheon's, parody, the one of the main features that distinguishes postmodernism from modernism is the declarative "takes the form of self-conscious, self-contradictory, self-undermining statement". One way of creating this contradictory aspect on any statement is the use of parody: citing a convention only to make fun of it. As Hutcheon explains, "Parody is often called ironic quotation, pastiche, appropriation, or intertextuality which is usually considered central to postmodernism, both by its detractors and its defenders". Compared to Jameson's statement, 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 then argues that "through a double process of installing and ironizing, parody signals how present representations come from past ones and what ideological consequences derive from both continuity and difference". Hutcheon also sets herself against the prevailing view among many postmodern theorists: "The prevailing interpretation is that postmodernism offers a value-free, decorative, de-historicised quotation of past forms and that this is a most apt mode for a culture like our own that is oversaturated with images. Furthermore, Hutcheon adds on, instead, that such an ironic stance on representation, genre, and ideology serves to politicise representation, illustrating the ways that interpretation is ultimately ideological. Parody de-doxifies it and 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.

Fredric Jameson's 

Pastiche - an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period. 

Parody - an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

Parody - "Ulterior motives" - challenging capitalism - through humour and aggression. Challenging the establishment. 

Pastiche - "Speech in a dead language" - extracting signs from the original place in time and ultimately their meaning. Gone/over. The original has a meaning, taking it away becomes mute. 

Examples: 

Films - 1950s youth culture. 

Linda Hutcheon

Parody—often called ironic quotation, pastiche, appropriation, or intertextuality—is usually considered central to postmodernism, both by its detractors and its defenders"

Hutcheon argues that "through a double process of installing and ironizing, parody signals how present representations come from past ones and what ideological consequences derive from both continuity and difference"

Post modernism, "Postmodernism in art today - be it in video, dance, literature, painting, music, architecture, or nay other form - seems to be art marked primarily by a internalised investigation of nature, the limits, and the possibilities of the language or discourse of art.

"Parody & Pastiche are the same" 

The paradox of postmodernist and jameson both believe, but rather that it can and does lead to a vision of interconnectedness: illuminating itself, the art work simultaneously casts light on the workings of aesthetic conceptualisation on..... it is true? 

enforces how we look at our situation, the way we communicate etc. Help to criticise it.

Stranger & Stranger - Product designers

- Influence to Victorian print advertising/typography. 

- Early modernism and wartime poster designs. 

Betty's Tea Room York - Packaging design
Bettys was founded by Frederick Belmont, a Swiss baker and confectioner who came to England in search of opportunities to develop his craft skills. He opened his first Café Tea Rooms in Harrogate in 1919 and named it 'Bettys'. The reason why remains a mystery to this day.

In the 1920s Frederick opened a Craft Bakery in Harrogate, complete with its own orchard. Thanks to the new Bakery, Frederick was able to open Bettys branches in other Yorkshire towns including a flagship café in York, the design of which was inspired by the magnificent Queen Mary Cruise liner. His York tea rooms became particularly popular during the war years when the basement 'Bettys Bar' became the favourite destination of the hundreds of American and Canadian 'Bomber Boys' stationed around York. 'Bettys Mirror', on which many of them engraved their signatures with a diamond pen, still hangs in the branch today.

Packaging design is influence by the 'Magnificent Queen Mary Cruiser Liner' which incorporates a 1920's trend, therefore after world war one. These packaging uses very victorian designs, lettering is in serifs and patterns are very regal. Here are some images below of this kind of style but with a modern twist.