OUGD501 - Studio Brief 01 - Further Reading - Jameson and Hutcheon, Pastiche and Parody

Jameson and Hutcheon each make interesting arguments in their essays on parody and pastiche. In Post Modernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Jameson is making the argument that parody, in its contemporary concept, has become what he coins as 'blank parody'. His argument that with the arrival of postmodernism, the use of parody has been lost and works now imitate others in the same way that pastiche does but with no significant reference to the works predecessor.

What can be even more useful is Jameson's comment on nostalgia film, where blank parody plays a huge part. 'we approach the 'past' through stylistic  connotation conveying 'pastness' by the glossy qualities of the image.' this analysis by Jameson can be and is a useful start to investigating postmodernism and the 'blank parody' effect on production design.

Hutcheon however, in The Politics of Postmodernism, takes a different approach to postmodern parody. Her argument is that it is postmodern nature to focus on production as well as reception and it's parodic relation to the past. Postmodernism has a new approach to parody, which its nature is to 'use and abuse' forms and convention in a critical way. Parody mocks the form whilst still using it 'postmodernist art offers a new model for mapping the borderline between art and the world, a model that works from a position within both and yet neither, a model that is profoundly implicated in, yet still capable of criticising that which it seeks to describe.' Her argument is that the postmodern approach to parody is contradictory as it depends upon and is also independent from its predecessor however it is still successful in criticising it.

Although Hutcheon's stance on parody is a political one and a different argument to Jameson's it is arguing against Jameson's views and is important in looking at the investigation subjectively. Hutcheon's opinions do not have much effect on Jameson's nostalgia film which derives from 'blank parody' but it is important to understand what works are making a referential parody, or Hutcheon's parody and what works are making simple imitations, or Jameson's blank parody, which causes nostalgia film.