PARODY AND PASTICHE
Definitions:
Parody - An imitation of the style of a particular write, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
Pastiche - An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.
Within the texts, parody and pastiche are being discussed, linking them to postmodernism.
Jameson's definition of parody and pastiche:
- Jameson states that parody is found without a vocation, that it has lived but pastiche is taking over from parody.
- "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."
Hutcheon's definition:
- Parody has 'introverted formalism' - bringing direct confrontation to the problem of relation of aesthetic to a world of defined meaning.
- Jameson stated that parody came with age - something that causes us to loose connection with the past.
Hutcheon's criticism of Jameson:
- "Jameson argues that is postmodernism 'parody finds itself without a vocation' replaced by pastiche, which he sees as more neutral or blank parody. But looking to both the aesthetic and historical past in postmodernist architecture is anything but what Jameson describes as pastiche, that is, 'the random cannibalisation of all the styles of the past, the plan 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 modernist art. To misunderstand this is to misunderstand the nature of much contemporary aesthetic production - even if it does make for neater theorising."
STUDY TASK - THE MALE GAZE
- Mulvey. L (1975) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema:
- psychoanalysis as a feminist weapon
- radical scopophilia emerging from hollywood cinema
(Scopophilia - sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or are engaged in sexual activity.)
-Narcissistic pleasure - cinema
- Active male, passive female
- Roles of men and women
- structures of the gaze and relation with castration threats
Discussion:
P1 -
- How people react when seeing body in film
- Women are made to feel inferior to men as they don't have a Penis...this making men more dominant - leaders.
- Society have made men leader because women don't have a penis, meaning the womans role is to become maternal.
- Psychoanalysis, using it as a means to understand oppression
- Women gain power through the threat of castration.
P2 -
- Males dominate hollywood, despite development which have allowed women to lead
- Alternative cinema make it possible to break away from the male dominance
- The male gaze is still relevant today however...
P3 -
- Scopophilia in cinema - through the pleasure of seeing
- The darkness of cinema giving the impression of spying / watching someone
- Accessibility from a young age, pleasure of seeing develops young. - extremes can develop into paedophilia and peeping toms
- Scopophilia is the joy of watching
P4 -
- Narcissistic pleasure, view yourself as the male protagonist - gain pleasure from that.
- Recognising the human form
- Ego + Narcissistic pleasure
- Everybody wants to better themselves - obsessed with the ideal version we can be
- Identifying the dominant male character
P5 -
- Women are displayed in two forms = erotic and as an object
- The male role as spectator and female role on screen - males are seen in more 3D form whereas females are flat in screen.
- Male spectator feels as though they can relate to male protagonist characters by objectifying females within film
- Men aren't used to / can't handle being sexualised - sexual objectification
P6 -
- In order to boost males ego's, they control female roles within cinema to reduce the threat of castration.
- Whilst women are an object of affection, they also present a threat to males.
Relation to Graphic Design
The male gaze is used within media and advertising today.
