Chapter 9

Two of the most interesting concepts to me in chapter 9 are pastiche and parody. According to Sturken and Cartwright, pastiche can be defined as:

"A style of plagiarizing, quoting, and borrowing from previous styles with no reference to history or a sense of rules. In architecture, a pastiche would be a mixing of classical motifs with modern elements in an aesthetic that does not reference the historical meanings of those styles" (452).

And parody is defined as:

"Cultural productions that make fun of more serious works through humor and satire while maintaining some of their elements such as plot or character" (452).

For pastiche, one of the main strategies, then, is questioning the validity of the original. The authors state though that sometimes pastiche can fall into the category of parody--they are not always completely separate.

One of the main examples in the book of parody is Simpsons episodes that play off of famous works (literature, movies, music, etc.). However, these parodies are lost on viewers if viewers are unfamiliar with the original works. Parody can only function if the viewers are engaged in both the original and the re-working of the original, and understand the difference between the two.

The authors state that in some ways, parody and pastiche are the opposite of reflexivity--reflexivity makes "viewers stand back in critical distance" while parody and pastiche "allow us to enjoy our involvement in both the old text and its parodic remake" (330).

Both reflexivity and parody/pastiche are postmodern strategies, but they are near opposites. It is interesting to me how versatile the ideology of postmodernism is--it is and can be so many things, but they can all be contradictory in and of themselves.