We were given an hour to read the texts thoroughly and consider closely the themes of pastiche and parody and how this can be applied to visual communication, in particular Graphic Design.
What is
parody/pastiche according to each author?
Hutcheon – On the
surface, postmodernisms main interest might seem to be in the processes of its
own production and reception, as well as in its own parodic relation to the art
of the past. Hutcheon wants to argue that it is precisely parody, that
seemingly introverted formalism, that paradoxically brings about a direct
confrontation with the problem of the relation of the aesthetic to a world of
significant external to itself, to a discursive world of socially defined
meaning systems (past and present) in other words, to ideology and history.
Postmodernism is fundamentally contradictory enterprise: its
art forms and theories use and abuse, install and then subvert convention in
parodic ways, self consciously pointing both to their own inherent paradoxes
and provisionality and, of course, to their critical or ironic re-reading of
the art of the past. Parody is negative; appropriation of historical styles
renders them dead and irrelevant.
Jameson – Pastiche
is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style,
the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. Pastiche is thus
blank parody, a statue with blind eyeballs: it is to parody what the other
interesting and historically original modern thing, the practice of a kind of
blank irony, is to what Wayne Booth calls the ‘stable ironies’ of the
eighteenth century. Pastiche needs to be
sharply distinguished from parody. Parody has anterior motives.
How does
parody/pastiche relate to postmodernism?
‘Postmodernism signals its contradictory dependence upon and
independence from the modernism that both historically preceded it and
literally made it possible’
How does Jameson’s
tone of voice differ to Hutcheon’s?
Jameson’s style of writing is a lot heavier and jumps topic
a lot faster than Hutcheon’s. ‘Speech in a dead language’ indicates a very
negative attitude towards the issues being discussed. Jameson is a Marxist and is therefore overtly
critical and negative in relation to the themes discussed.
Hutcheon is somewhat more positive about the themes but has
a negative view towards the Marxist opinions discussed in Jameson’s essay. She
discusses things in relation to the arts (any cultural output) but chooses to
home in on architecture in her essay.
How might these ideas
relate to graphic design/visual communication?
Postmodern graphic design is marked by the replaying of visual styles and the recycling of ideologies. Some of the earliest work that can be described as postmodern graphic design actually paid homage to the strict, lifeless rules of modernist graphic design, this is a classic example of pastiche rather than parody.
Jameson's concept of "pastiche" is usefully contrasted to Linda Hutcheon's understanding of postmodern parody. 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. According to Jameson, parody has, in the postmodern age, been replaced by pastiche. "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"
Defining pastiche:
The dictionary definition of pastiche is very simplistic: 'A pastiche is an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period' or put even more simply; 'to imitate the style of (an artist or work)'
After reading a segment of Jameson's essay, I would say that he would define it quite differently. His Marxist principles have resulted in him having quite a negative view on pastiche. This is how I imagine he would define pastiche:
'The process of imitating or copying a unique visual style within the realms of visual culture' - "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, F. 1991, Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Verso Books
Hutcheon would define it very differently in my opinion.
'A certain manifestation of parody within the context of the arts. Pastiche is often viewed as being a more neutral, blank form of parody'
She opposes Jameson's opinion openly in her essay writing. Hutcheon disapproves Jameson's idea of pastiche which is equivalent to 'empty parody', to quote: 'Jameson argues that in postmodernism "parody
finds itself without a vocation,"21 replaced by pastiche, which he (bound
by a definition of parody as ridiculing imitation) sees as more neutral
or blank parody. But the looking to both the aesthetic and historical
past in postmodernist architecture is anything but what Jameson describes
as pastiche, that is, "the random cannibalization ofall the styles
of the past, the play of random stylistic allusion." There is absolutely
nothing random or "without principle" in the parodic recall and re-examination
of the past by architects like Charles Moore or Ricardo
Bofill. To include irony and play is never necessarily to exclude seriousness
and purpose in postmodernist art. To misunderstand this is to
misunderstand the nature of much contemporary aesthetic production
- even if it does make for neater theorizing'
Some nice examples of contemporary graphic design that features pastiche in some way or another:
No comments:
Post a Comment