Study Task 2 - Parody & Pastiche

Frederic Jameson describes how pastiche has taken over parody in this post-modern world in his book ‘Postmodernism’ (1992). Jameson states that pastiche is where there is an imitation of a particular style without knowledge of any historical context behind it, as a 'desperate attempt to appropriate a missing past' (Jameson. F 1992, p.19). He talks about this in an extremely dystopian way and portrays the process as a way of recycling culture with 'blind eyeballs' (Jameson. F 1992 p.17). Jameson relates pastiche back to the post-modern by describing how post-modern actions are led by deathlessness, similar to the way that pastiche has a lost meaning for history as it is merely seen as something ready to rework. Jameson also talks about his theory on parody and that he views it as ‘blank parody’ with no meaning (Jameson, F 1992 p.17). On the other hand, theorist Linda Hutcheon challenges this dystopian impression given by Jameson through explanation of parody as the ‘deliberate refusal’ of the past and instead giving history ‘new life and meaning’ (Hutcheon. L 1986, p.182). This is quite an interesting contrast, as it gives a more optimistic outlook and tone of voice, in comparison to the negative attitude that Jameson appears to have persistently throughout his ideas. Instead, Hutcheon sees it as something that modifies the old to bring new life to things that already exist in time. In relation to animation, all of these ideas could suggest how animations follow trends that have been set in history, such as the ‘fundamentals of animation’, or how films follow similar narratives over and over. However, it could be that animations follow these same paths, such as the 'hero's journey', to bring new life even to the most basic of narratives that may have been done before.