Pastiche & Homage

Pastiche

Pastiche in its simplest form is merely an imitation of an existing style. Often it is done in a light hearted way but more often it takes the form of a 'satire'.


A satire attempts to mock or ridicule topical issues, this can often mean that its humour and purpose is fleeting as it relies on the audience knowing the issue which is being sent up.


Pastiche is now seen as part of Postmodernism and is used in both support and criticism of postmodernism.

Homage

Not to be confused with a pastiche, the homage is a far kinder and more respectful way of making use of an existing style. Tarantino makes use of homage is all his films. When watching a postmodern text you need to decide whether what you're witnessing is a pastiche or a homage (not that a postmodernist would probably care).

In addition, a postmodernist would not care about pastiche or homage.