Pastiche
A work that imitates the style or conventions of earlier works, often as deliberate homage or play. Unlike parody, it need not ridicule its source.
Style: A distinctive manner of expression shaped by recurring choices in form, technique, and tone. Pastiche reproduces recognizable patterns of expression rather than merely borrowing a subject.
Literary imitation: The deliberate modeling of a literary work on the language, forms, or techniques of another. Pastiche extends imitation from particular techniques to the recognizable manner of a source.
Literary pastiche: A literary work that imitates the style or conventions of earlier writers or texts. It applies pastiche directly to prose, poetry, and other written forms.
Satire: The use of wit, irony, or ridicule to criticize human behavior or institutions. Satire targets a subject; pastiche primarily reproduces a style.
Intertextuality: The network of relationships through which texts echo, transform, or refer to other texts. Pastiche makes earlier works perceptible within a new work.
Genre: A category of works defined by shared conventions of form, subject, or style. Imitating a genre’s conventions can produce pastiche without copying one specific work.
Musical quotation: The incorporation of recognizable musical material from another composition into a new work. Composers can evoke earlier musical idioms through recognizable borrowed passages.
Plagiarism: The presentation of another’s words or ideas as one’s own without proper acknowledgment. Pastiche makes imitation an artistic method, while plagiarism misrepresents authorship.
Allusion: An indirect reference to a person, work, event, or idea that relies on recognition. A pastiche may signal its sources through brief references as well as sustained imitation.
Motif: A recurring element, image, or idea that contributes to a work’s patterns of meaning. Repeated motifs can help make the source style of a pastiche legible.