A pastiche is a piece of visual art, music, theater or literature that has taken characteristics from other pieces and appropriates them to fit a certain context, which celebrates the styles and uses them appropriately, unlike a parody which mocks the work it imitates.
Linda Hucheon states that parody helps us consider how design relates to the outside world. She claims that parody is a political issue, not a mindless cannibalization of styles. She believes that within postmodernism, parody and pastiche are one and the same. Since postmodernism was a reaction to modernity, it could be classed as a pastiche, but it is also a parody, since it rejects the ideas put forward by modernism. Hucheon claims that postmodernism will never be its own being, that it needs historical context to exist "it is incorporated and modified, given new life and meaning." (Hucheon, L, 1989).
Jameson believes that parody and pastiche are not equal to each other. Pastiche is a blank parody. The past is always a representation of what we think it is, rather than the truth. "No original has ever existed." (Jameson, F, 1991). Jameson is very blunt with his writing, and very critical of the idea of pastiche." Pastiche, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language." (Jameson, F, 1991).
The two philosophers both have a very different view of what parody and pastiche is. An example of this would be the Stranger and Stranger branding. They cultivate a lot of different aspects of culture and periods of time and create branding that mimics that of a certain aesthetic. Jameson would call this a parody, as Stranger and Stranger are effectively appropriating these styles for their own use, though Hucheon would say that they have created a pastiche of all the styles.
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