Where Hutcheon sees everything new created in the modern age as a Parody, feeding off of and being inspired by influences of the past, Jameson refers to this concept as a ‘blank parody’ or ‘Pastiche’, a style of work that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.
In his essay, Jameson refers to Postmodernism as a dystopian era with little to no originality or ingenuity. Everything that is 'new' is an overstimulation of confusion, combining different elements of past trends and ideas into a ‘random cannibalization’ of creations which lack principle or meaning. "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". Pastiche cherry picks styles without reasoning and causes the past to blur into a meaningless weakening of historicity.
Hutcheon however believes Postmodern parody is not ahistorical or de-historicizing but signals how present representations come from past ones. Postmodern parody does not disregard the context of the past representations but uses irony to acknowledge the fact that we are inevitably separated from the past. Hutcheon believes parody is interconnectedness and creates ‘a new model for mapping the relationship between art and the world.’ Hutcheon, 1986 (p150)
In Graphic design examples of pastiche can be found everywhere from advertising to branding. Many of today’s famous brands use or imitate styles of the past. The Thrasher logotype was originally designed in 1951, by French typographer Roger Excoffon.
Excoffon’s typeface, Branco, which was considered a tad cheap and tacky among his contemporaries, had for many years emblazoned the windows of butcher shops, hair salons, and bookstores in Europe. It grew stale and nobody in their right mind would choose to centre a brand around it, until Bob Marley used the font for his Natty Dread album in 1974 and made it cool again.
Then in 1981 skateboard magazine Thrasher used it to dress up their skaters. Nowadays pretty much every fashion icon on Earth has worn some variation of the logo.
Another example of parody and pastiche are the countless variations of Marilyn Monroe's iconic portrait by Andy Warhol. It has been reimagined, repeated and reinvented multiple times since it's origin by various different artists including Banksy, Richard Pettibone and Elaine Sturtevant. Banksy's 'Kate' is an obvious copy of the original featuring Kate Moss instead of Marylin Monroe. This suggests Kate Moss was the iconic cover girl of the naughties, directly replacing Marilyn within this period in history. Hutcheon would beleive that this is an example of parody of the original rather than pastiche as it is not a mindless, direct copy but uses the meaning behind the piece to create a new relevant piece of work as it does not disregard the context of the past representations but uses irony to acknowledge the fact that we are inevitably separated from the past.
In his essay, Jameson refers to Postmodernism as a dystopian era with little to no originality or ingenuity. Everything that is 'new' is an overstimulation of confusion, combining different elements of past trends and ideas into a ‘random cannibalization’ of creations which lack principle or meaning. "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". Pastiche cherry picks styles without reasoning and causes the past to blur into a meaningless weakening of historicity.
Hutcheon however believes Postmodern parody is not ahistorical or de-historicizing but signals how present representations come from past ones. Postmodern parody does not disregard the context of the past representations but uses irony to acknowledge the fact that we are inevitably separated from the past. Hutcheon believes parody is interconnectedness and creates ‘a new model for mapping the relationship between art and the world.’ Hutcheon, 1986 (p150)
In Graphic design examples of pastiche can be found everywhere from advertising to branding. Many of today’s famous brands use or imitate styles of the past. The Thrasher logotype was originally designed in 1951, by French typographer Roger Excoffon.
Excoffon’s typeface, Branco, which was considered a tad cheap and tacky among his contemporaries, had for many years emblazoned the windows of butcher shops, hair salons, and bookstores in Europe. It grew stale and nobody in their right mind would choose to centre a brand around it, until Bob Marley used the font for his Natty Dread album in 1974 and made it cool again.
Then in 1981 skateboard magazine Thrasher used it to dress up their skaters. Nowadays pretty much every fashion icon on Earth has worn some variation of the logo.
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| Excoffon's original typeface, Branco |
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| Bob Marley's Natty Dread Album featuring the typeface |
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| Rhianna wearing a T-shirt featuring the logo |
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| Elaine Sturtevant, 1973-2004 |
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| Banksy - 'Kate', 2005 |
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| ‘Andy Warhol, ‘Marilyn Monroe’, 1964’ by Richard Pettibone (1968) |
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