Pastiche in Postmodern Literature
Think of pastiche as the literary equivalent of a collage: it's not about creating something from scratch but drawing on what already exists. (Yeah, those Bachelor contestants know what's up.) There are all sorts of ways in which texts can reference other texts, right? But what a pastiche does is imitate other texts or genres. It's like playing dress up: a text may take on the guise of a hard-boiled detective novel, a Gothic melodrama, a spy adventure…take your pick. The postmodern author doesn't even have to choose just one—they can mimic as many genres as they like.
People sometimes get pastiche and parody mixed up, since they're both examples of intertextuality and relying on our knowledge as readers: we can't recognize parody or pastiche in action unless who know what they're referencing. But parody usually exaggerates and pokes fun at the original material. Pastiche, meanwhile, adopts the stylings of the original but doesn't comment on or make fun of the material (if anything, it's more likely to pay tribute).
As with postmodernism in general, not everyone is in love with the idea of pastiche—Fredric Jameson famously called it pointless and empty. Despite its critics, though, pastiche is a super-popular technique in postmodern texts and can be found in all areas of pop culture. Think Quentin Tarantino movies: they imitate a bunch of genres, like kung fu, grindhouse, and western movies; and dime store pulp novels.
So if you're reading or watching something and it seems like it's a hodgepodge of different genres, you can put your money on pastiche.
Chew on This
Some works may stick to one genre ,but David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004) is made up of no less than six, including mystery, cyberpunk, sci-fi, and period drama. This is one novel that relishes the use of pastiche, but that's no surprise—Mitchell wears his influences on his sleeve and has even listed the styles and authors that he has mimicked (check out this article).
In the mood for a fun jaunt through '80s pop culture? Then check out Ernest Cline's Ready Player One (2011). Fed up with living in a bleak future world (2044 to be precise), the characters in this novel retreat into a virtual reality game—a game whose designer had a thing for the '80s. Cue a totally radical journey into a decade of legwarmers, Ghostbusters, and Pac-Man (click here for a handy list of pop culture references).