Literature
Pastiche
Pastiche is a literary technique that involves imitating or borrowing elements from other works of literature, often for the purpose of paying homage or creating a sense of nostalgia. It can involve the use of specific styles, themes, or characters from other works, and is often used to create a sense of familiarity or to evoke a particular mood or tone.
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3 Key excerpts on "Pastiche"
eBook - PDFReading Revelation as Pastiche
Imitating the Past
- Michelle Fletcher(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- T&T Clark(Publisher)
d Summary Pastiche awareness has come a long way since the De Piles formulation, but it has never left its moorings of the realm between original and copy, describing combination and imitation of constituent parts all united with a common flavour. Yet Pastiche is not something ‘set in stone’ but rather a term to describe a spectrum of textual practices that can manifest in many media and forms, times and locations. Defining Pastiche can be tricky, and as we have seen, it has more often than not been relegated to something trivial and not worthy of attention, subsumed into more explicit forms of imitation such as parody and homage. Yet although Jameson may have damaged Pastiche’s reputation and fused it with the postmodern when he 52. Ibid., p. 180. 53. Proust, Selected Letters , p. 2: 355, seemed aware of this when he declared Pastiche to be ‘literary criticism “in action”’. 54. Hoesterey, Pastiche , p. 48. 55. Ibid., pp. 47–52. 56. Dyer, Pastiche , pp. 66–9. Pastiche: Imitation and Combination 61 called it ‘blank parody’, he also revealed a form of imitation and combination that was distinct from parody, and so created a space in which the more subtle, neutral, combining, imitating and blending, ‘like but not the same’ practice of Pastiche could be seen. 57 As imitative and combinatory practices became more prolific, and as intertextuality reassessed the nature of ‘originality’ and ‘authenticity’, a situation arose where Pastiche could be reappraised, and could eventually open up new ways of reading a wide range of texts/textual units where similarity could be affirmed, multiple sources could dialogue without the need to separate out and find ‘original meanings’, and the position of the reader could become the focus.
eBook - PDFGenres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism
Scribal Composition and Transmission
- Molly M. Zahn(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Note that, for Genette, “Pastiche” is a form of imitation; that is, it involves the attempt to mimic the style of a particular text or genre, not the reuse of particular snippets of a single text (or, if it does, he implies, that reuse is incidental). Thus, he uses Pastiche in a sense different from the way it has been employed by the scholars cited above. 6 Conclusion 193 Table 6.4 Diverse forms and functions of reuse Type of Reuse Form Function Centripetal Reuse Large chunks Extended coverage Re-presentation of known topic ➔ New interpretation of known topic Placing new composition in known discourse/genre Expand or develop characters Limited Reuse large chunks NOT extensive Re-presentation implies possible interpretive function, but limited/secondary to main composition NOT helpful in situating composition as a whole in a discourse/genre Historical Résumé No large chunks Extended (but selective) coverage Wide range of generic settings/ locations Re-presentation ➔ New interpretation of known topic, but highly schematic NOT helpful in situating whole composition in a discourse/genre Pastiche No large chunks No extended coverage No real re-presentation ➔ no detailed interpretation Suited to new content/topics Situates new composition as part of tradition (but in a broad sense) Structural Reuse No large chunks No extended coverage No re- presentation No detailed interpretation Suited to new content Situates new composition in a discourse through imitation of prototype New Narratives associated with a Known Character No large chunks No extended coverage No re- presentation No detailed interpretation Suited to new content Situates new composition, but through use of character rather than imitation of structure. Expands/develops character 194 Diverse Genres of Reuse
eBook - PDFOperatic Pasticcios in 18th-Century Europe
Contexts, Materials and Aesthetics
- Berthold Over, Gesa zur Nieden, Berthold Over, Gesa zur Nieden(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- transcript Verlag(Publisher)
434f. Pasticcio en littérature ? 199 Latin Stabat Mater , the Latin Mass, and certain poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe such as Gretchen’s songs, Das Veilchen and Erlkönig , or the Chansons by Paul Verlaine that have been and continue to be set by various composers. New settings of pre-existing librettos such as the various settings of the librettos by Pietro Metastasio differ in so far as the text tends to be cut and adapted to new settings and theatrical contexts. Apart from that, in literary studies, the term Pastiche is used more often than the term pasticcio. “The term Pastiche appeared in France at the end of the eighteenth cen-tury in the terminology of painting. It was a transfer of the Italian word pasticcio ; the term literally meant ‘paste’ and designated first a mixture of diverse imitations, then a particular imitation.” 5 Contrary to Gérard Genette’s definition of the Pastiche, the opera pasticcio is not so much of an imitation, but more of a quote. But Genette’s shift from direct to (mainly textually) adapted quotation is significant for the use of Pastiche in written literature, as it is mainly associated with the sphere of parody and travesty. 6 The easy and clear cases are the comic Pastiche, where the repetition of style points out or overstretches the main characteristics to poke fun, even taking into account, as every comedian knows, that one has to take parody very seriously to make it funny. A case of special interest along those lines are the Heinrich Heine imitations by the poet Peter Rühmkorf, which – as Theodor Verweyen has shown – 7 instead of pointing critically to Heine, address the German attitude of Heine’s reception.
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